Sword Art Online, Through Angel
by AnimaniacComin'AtYa
Summary: Angel, a girl cursed with a photographic memory, and the inability to hear in real life. Gets stuck in a death game, the name? Sword Art Online! What will happen to the 15 year old girl as she searches for love, friendship, happiness, and the ability to hear in the death game that may very well be the end of her!
1. Meet me! Angel!

=Chapter 1-The Prologue=

Looking into a mirror I glance at what which falls behind the social norm. I glance at my white hair and purple eyes, as well as my pale as a ghost skin. These are all the results of a rare condition known as Alexandra's syndrome, and I am one of only three people known to suffer from this genetic condition. The only reason I have hair that falls to my thighs is because my grandmother says that she enjoys how it looks, and if she thinks so, it's enough for me. I live alone with my grandmother, whom is growing more feeble as she gains in her years, and I moved in with her because of how close she is to my school, and because she needs to be monitored a bit more closely, even if she won't admit it herself. After a bit more thought, I suddenly realize just how much I was dazing off, and pull out my phone to check the time. 5:45?! I have to go make dinner!

I rush down the stairs and nearly run into grandmother, she looks even more surprised then me though. I can see that she's mouthing, "Don't worry, I have prepared dinner already to celebrate your birthday!" I take out a scratch pad in order to thank her and run into the kitchen pulling out enough utensils and plates for the two of us and setting them on the table before sitting down and waiting for her to serve the meal. It's a tradition of sorts in our family to have the cook serve the meal, so I just go along with it, since it makes grandmother happy.

Around three minutes pass, and I get up to see if anything's wrong, and see that she's pulled out a large package from the backroom. It's wrapped in a grey tinfoil like wrapping paper with a large white bow on top. After scribbling the question to whether or not I was aloud to open it, she mouthed "Of course." So, I ripped into the wrapping paper like a lion would maul a zebra. I find that the large box is just that, a large box, and it's contents are among other things such as a few new miniature notebooks and such I find a card at the very bottom. After opening it, it reads as follows, "Whether or not you are willing to tell your grandmother what you really want or not, I do pay attention. I wish you have a great birthday! I know we are celebrating it a day early, but I have a feeling you will be fairly busy tomorrow what with that new game that you want. Love ~Grandmother. P.S. This is better than the giant stuffed lemur I got you for Christmas... right?" I realize after reading the letter that something else is still in there, and 5000 yen falls into my lap after I flip it over.

This is just enough for Sword Art Online! Okay, please don't misunderstand me and think I'm one easily excited, it's just that this is something that I have been hoping to have for such a long time! You see, it's believed that VRMMORPG games such as this will be able to simulate anything that you could do in the real world, and that they are able to use parts of the brain that normally are inaccessible because they are directly linked to the brain. This kind of technology will be able to help people such as myself be able to experience things that we wouldn't be able to in the real world! This will allow people such as me who suffer from genetic defects or accidents be able to experience life like any normal person would! You see, for me, Alexandra's Syndrome had two other adverse effects on me, it caused me to lose any ability to hear, but doctors claim that the part of my brain usually used for hearing has been rewired to support my memory, giving me a near photographic memory.

After I make a few statements against a new idea that grandmother proposes, I eventually cave in and sit down in between her legs on the floor while she is sitting on the couch with a brush in her hand and the bow from the present. She combs through my hair delicately, seemingly strand by strand. In all honesty, I can feel my brain cells gradually firing up from the idea of seeing whatever she will settle on doing to my hair. She only told me that she would incorporate the bow from the present she had wrapped me, since she didn't want it to go to waste. I feel the anticipation biting away at me and after seemingly an eternity (15 minutes) she lets go of my hair as though telling me to check the mirror. I practically sprint to the bathroom upstairs, although it was more like a striding walk, because I don't want to fall.

I look at my hair and she had braided the braids in the braids... braids... Anyways, she had done a great job of using the pile of fur attached to my head and making it into something beautiful. She even had used the single strand of ribbon and made it into an elaborately designed bow that had two pieces dangling down to my ankles. I gently twirl and look at the white dress that she had given me a few days yet that I had only worn today flutter until eventually resettling at the same height where the ribbon had ended. It leaves me in awe as to how she had accomplished such a feat.

I head to my room to do my daily contemplation... As I had mentioned previously, I live alone with my grandmother, but while part of this was a choice of my parents and myself, there was another underlying cause to my moving here. Due to my rather strange appearance, I am actually often picked on, or rather, I'm just left as a kind of outsider and it doesn't help that I live in a traditionally elitist family, which causes people distance themselves even further than just my appearances would have. I've never been much of a social butterfly, I am aware of that, but I did want to make a few good friends before I left. After my grandmother had fallen and suffered from a broken leg a few months ago, my parents had made the final decision that since they hated the idea of putting her in the care of a nanny or putting her in an old folks home, that I would live with her. So in a sense, it killed two birds with one stone, because my dream school is also here!

I have been attending Tokyo University since I came here, I got accepted with the second highest school on the exam. Turns that I somehow had thought 18 divided by 3 was 9, instead of 6. Tokyo University is a great school and I am really enjoying my time here. As it turns out, there is a lot of grand people here whom come to prosper intellectually! Sometimes I will join others for a game or two of shogi, even though I find myself often going into deep thought, leading me to lose a lot... For whatever reason, I have a lot of trouble trying to think ahead in the game, but I guess that can't be helped. I mean, everyone must have their own weaknesses, I guess mine is trying to think about tomorrow... or maybe I'm thinking too much into it.

In my time here, I have even managed to make a friend or two, all though I don't know whether or not they consider me a friend. They just kind of come over to me after class and ask me various questions about the lecture that had occurred that day while I prepare to go home. Occasionally, they will bring up something completely unrelated such as 'men,' and the like. They would also sometimes ask me questions about what I do when I'm at home, but I end up cooping out and not answering them because I don't want to involve myself with them. Not because I believe that they are inferior to me or anything. It's just that, I feel as though the more I invest myself to someone the more it will hurt if they decide to betray me...

On another note, as I previously mentioned, there is all kinds of people here. Such as those whom don't have their eyes in the books, but metaphorically groping the opposite sex. There have even been a few whom have approached me in the hopes of attracting my attention. To be honest, I feel as though I was a little too cruel on them, as I did keep letting them idealize me for a while, or rather, I let them play with the idea. They all eventually ended up being denied though, of course. Honestly, the biggest problem I have with it is the fact that they are interested in me when I'm only 15, well, tomorrow I'm turning 16. I'm aware love has no boundaries, but I haven't even done anything particularly out of the ordinary in order to attract their attention. I personally have no intention of ruining my chances of a future by wasting my time doing something that will end up being fruitless such as romantic relations.

After realizing the amount of time I must have spent in deep thought, I glance at the clock that rests on my dresser by my bed, 11:38?! I really need to go to bed if I want to get enough sleep for tomorrow morning! I begrudgingly leave the warmth of my bed and turn of the light before rejoining the comfortable handmade quilts that lay strewn everywhere on my bed. I try to keep my head clear but it doesn't really work, and I eventually fall back onto the thoughts about relationships and such...

However... If... By any chance... There is someone out there... *Dozing off* Fit for me... Then I guess I wouldn't have a choice to deny them... *yawn* Well, maybe I would be the one being rejected then...


	2. I Must get SAO!

Chapter 2=Get The Game!-

I jump up from my bed, grasping at my chest, "Again?!" I think to myself. I've been having a reoccurring dream for the longest time, however, I never have been able to remember what actually happened in the dream. I just always wake up with a completely terror stricken. 4:02... After the numerous previous experiences I have had after this dream, I am well aware that I will not be able to fall back asleep, it also left me completely awake. I eventually force myself out of the bed and head downstairs, but not before grabbing my cellphone. I know that it is still very early for me to leave, but I also am aware that many will try to set out even earlier and camp overnight to get the game. I decide that for now I will distract myself by cooking breakfast. I have the stove heat up and I pull out 3 eggs and some flour among other ingredients in order to make some traditional English pancakes.

When the pan and the stove have heated to 350 I put it on for around 10 minutes, flip it, then cook it for an additional three minutes. After I finished making 6 pancakes and running out of the mix I made, I put a note on top of three of the pancakes which I had wrapped and after placing the note, put them into the fridge. I practically scarf down my half of the pancakes and leave a note on the kitchen table telling her that I would be gone for a majority of the day in order to hopefully get my hand on a copy of the game. I head back upstairs and grab the money that she had given me for my birthday and quietly head out of the door.

By the time I get to the video game store I usually go to, there is a long line of people that seems to stretch infinitely. I begin the long walk of shame as I make my way to the back of the line, I suddenly feel an abrupt tug at my sweatshirt as I'm pulled into the line. I look up and see a stranger with medium length jet black hair and blue eyes looking at me. They greet me, and I nervously write a response on my scratchpad, thanking them for allowing me in front of him, but that I don't condone going in front of people whom had already been waiting their just turn. Thus, returning to my hunt to find the back of the line. I bump into an access of people on my way, but after the eleventh time of me tossing out the 'I'm sorry' note on my scratch pad, I get a response in sign language, "No...Big Deal?" I think. To be honest, I'm a bit rusty since I haven't used it in a long while, because no one else really uses it much.

I quickly attempt to give a reply, my hands quivering slightly since I usually don't move them around so quickly, excluding gym. "You can use sign language?" I flutter my hands in the motions that I believe are correct. I only bothered to learn the basic alphabet, so it's not really anything spectacular. He gives the hand motion that I believe is "Yes," before switching to single letter motions, probably realizing that I don't have much experience with it. He then spells out, "I have a huge hearing deficiency, so I can't really understand it well when people talk to me. A lot of the kids at my school already knew the basics since I go to a private school for people with problems like mine, so it's a school requirement to learn it."

I look at the line and notice the line already seems significantly shorter, and it makes me wonder just how long it took for him to make all of those motions. Then again, most of the people are only coming to the video game store for one game, so it wouldn't take to long. "I'm completely deaf, but I don't get to use sign language very often, so the motions feel unfamiliar since it's been so long," is what I decide to go along with. I take out a copy of Freedom by Jonathan Franzen. It was recommended to me by one of the girls that constantly come talk to me after classes. Although, I have a lot of trouble relating to the protagonist of the story... After around 5 minutes, I notice a pair of eyes that is staring over my book, and breathing that creeps up my neck and gives me shivers.

I turn around and notice it's the person that I had talked to earlier, I hadn't been able to notice earlier due to the distance we were away from each other before, but he actually isn't bad looking. Don't misunderstand, I'm only saying this as an afterthought, and because it would be dishonest to deny it. I decide to lay down for the rest of the time I have to wait. It's cold outside, but it's better then standing up for another hour or two. However, as soon as I lay down I can feel a heap of exhaustion fall on me from having gotten such a little amount of sleep. My eyes slowly start to feel heavy and I can feel my head droop into my book before I can do anything about it.

When I open my eyes, and rather begrudgingly if I do say so myself, I can see the gentlemen from earlier looking at me with a worried look on his face. It takes a few moments before I realize after looking at my clock that it's already noon! I frantically spell to him with my rudimentary sign language, "So, does this mean that I can't get a copy of the game?" I feel a little let down, even though I know that I can just get a copy tomorrow. After he asks if I'm okay, he pulls out a copy of Sword Art Online from his bag. When I ask him about it, he just says not to mind and that he got it because he didn't want to disturb me. I suddenly remember that I have to make grandmother, she's probably dying of worry right now!

I frantically try to calculate the quickest way home, after a moment of needlessly wracking my brain I just decide to sprint home the way I came and give a rushed good-bye after trying to convince him that I should pay for the game and him refusing. When I finally get there and practically slam the door open, I realize that grandmother is actually still sleeping on the couch, and I take a sigh of relief. It would have been a problem if she hadn't overslept today, good thing it is a Saturday.

I quietly and hurriedly crawl up the stairs and into my room. There I decide to open the NerveGear my parents had sent me for Christmas, I hadn't opened it earlier because it only had games like Tetra, which really don't have a point to being adapted. I carefully take out the head set and meticulously go through the pamphlet/guidebook that comes with it page by page. Even doing that, I still need to go through it a few times to make completely sure that I have all the cords hooked correctly. After that, I have to pat the NerveGear all over my body, the guidebook claims that it was necessary for calibration, so I do it with a bit of hesitation. It still kind of makes me uncomfortable.

After the tedious set-up process is complete I decided to go through the manual one last time, because I don't know what kind of repercussions I would face were I to mess it up. This eventually leads me to wonder about what would happen if an error had occurred in the game, how would they be able to turn off the NerveGear? I mean, they lock the body of the player into place, so, how? A simple defect could potentially have deadly consequences for those whom don't have family members to unplug their NerveGear. Then again, I think that anything I would think could be wrong has already been thoroughly investigated. I put in the game disc and put the head piece to the NerveGear after a small amount of adjusting I'm reading and I hit the switch in the back of it. This was set in place especially for people such as myself, who can't say 'Link Start' out loud.

A count down then initiates counting down from 10 to 1 with a 1 second span between each number, then it writes out "Scent, Sight, Sound, Taste, Touch, Language: English! Link, started!" Upon the words 'Link Started flashing on the screen I could feel, or rather, I believe, hear the chattering from something, maybe it's my first taste of hearing, but it means complete gibberish to me... I should have realized I wouldn't be able to understand the language instantly just because I can recognize that sound is being produced doesn't mean I know where it came from or what it means.


	3. Enter into, Sword Art Online!

Chapter 3

When the link started, I had a screen pulled up where I could select from various outfits and starting classes. Ranging from Knight even to something as obscure as Cook. While debating the many seemingly favorable options, I eventually selected the one that I thought would best suit me. The Ninja class, while it's name is oddly cheesy and not the least bit secure, it comes with a few abilities that would be highly useful throughout the game. Such as being able to hear through doors and disguise yourself, even though I don't have a lot of faith in it just yet, I feel like it would be a good asset for the future.

I decide not to change my appearance, with the ideal that if I ever decide to meet someone in the real world I wouldn't want them to be thrown off by how disheveled I am from my character. I also carry this idea that it ends up leading to false hopes, although, as to exactly why, I am not entirely sure. Looking through the various styles of outfits, I eventually had decided on one that had the least contrast to my personality, a grey, gold, and white outfit. It was a tight fitting dress from the waist up that had 2 straps that made it resemble a pair of suspenders. The straps were golden and had another strap that was white that across the dress, snuggly fitting just under my breasts.

The pants that were worn with it were tight fitting leggings, and over this entire outfit was a grey cloak that covered to around my knees, deciding it would make me less conspicuous. After deciding that I was happy for the second time, running over a few possible mock scenarios, including if I were to be revealed. I want to stay away from the limelight long enough to get a grasp of the world around me, I believe that recklessly charging in and trying to fight off monsters would not be the smartest way to become one of the best. After I selected my avatar, I heard, "Are you sure you would like to select this as your Avatar?" and then got to see a 3d model of my character beside me.

I couldn't actually understand what she/he was saying, but at the moment, I was just completely intoxicated by the knowledge that I now have the ability to hear. Other than my lack of the comprehension of people speaking, I can hear! This would make me no different from the average Joe walking down the street. Actually, I thought, suddenly derailing my previous chain of thought, I want to put my hair in a pin and a ribbon that looked similar to one I received from my mother. I hadn't taken the effort to note it before, but the room that you select your avatar in is completely empty of life, it's just a white back ground gradating to simulate a 3 dimensional space.

After finally confirming the selection, I was engulfed in a bright green flame and almost panicked for a moment, but before I could screech from alarm, I noticed me standing in a large town, bustling with people. I looked around, and was quickly able to identify people whom would probably be an issue later in game, probably due to prior experience, but people whom are stronger than yourself or others always seem to have a kind of atmosphere. It isn't dictated by personality either, I think, it might the color of their eyes. Not in a physical sense, but, it's kind of like how when you look at a cold killer, you can't see any life in them.

I noticed after a while, that someone was walking around with a confused expression on their face. They would seem like someone I would want to avoid, but I did want to note them, since I wanted to avoid presenting myself like them, as it would lead to me appearing weak. I seem to be staring though, and he ends up looking my way, I quickly move my gaze, but it was too late, and he had seen me. He makes his way over, and starts speaking, although I can't really understand what he's saying, a message board appears, giving me an idea. It was a setting that you could select while calibrating the nerve gear for those whom had disabilities. They must have really put a lot of thought into this system.

Anyway, I directed my attention to the message board, "Yo, I am not really sure of how to play this just yet. But you seem to know how to present yourself around this environment." I type back a message, and hear an undistinguishable voice speak whenever I type something on the board. However, this sounds very stiff in comparison. "I really have been at this for only a few minutes, I just don't want to give off a feeling of unknowing, since that could lead to people trying to take advantage of me." He responds rather quickly, and it seems the voice calibrater has an issue with it, since some of the words are altered and make it a bit difficult to read, "Me name is Klain, I tried walking to you when walking Upton you but you weren't responding, is this wow you appeal in roar light?" The loading label at the bottom of the page didn't leave though, and eventually it corrects itself to say as follows, even though by the time it corrects itself, I think I have an idea of what he was saying...

"My name is Klein, I tried talking to you while walking up to you but you weren't responding, is this how you appear in real life?" While I previously ignored it, he hasn't taken off the not so subtle suggestive face he was making toward me. I told him yes, and that suggestive gaze didn't leave. I felt rather creeped out but didn't say anything. "I have a basic idea of how to play this game just using my prior knowledge, but this knowledge might not apply to this game... We will have to see how it plays out." He asks to accompany me, and I walk around looking for someone with the formerly mentioned gaze, which would give away experienced players. There was a few, but they seemed to engulfed in their own experiences to acknowledge newcomers who need some guidance.

Of those whom stood out, the one whom seemed the most approachable, wearing a leather vest and blue sweater under it. I didn't feel just right coming up to him, probably because his appearance seems altered. When I approach the guy, Klein follows and we both greet the player. He seems rather friendly, at least, but also seems to be giving off a slight air of annoyance. We are a rather large burden, since we are like new born babies, with no idea of the world around us and it's capabilities, so I end up sympathizing with him instead of getting upset. He eventually reveals his name to be Kirito, and we end up quickly conversing about my hearing, problem, just skimming it since it obviously made me uncomfortable, I guess.

_-=Around two hours later=-_ (Kirito's POV)

I had quickly noticed while we had started to train, with me giving demonstrations about how things typically work, and noticed that Angel would adapt at an alarming rate. Klein on the other hand... "Ugh!" He fell to the ground, and just had his balance thrown off by one of the boar we were training with. I wondered for a moment about how she could ajust so quickly to this unfamiliar world. I noticed fairly quickly that she also had a change in expression, when she had first approached me in the center of the Town of Beginnings, she seemed to be a blank canvas. Even though I have only known her for afew hours, she seems to have a much more graceful stance, and even though it's slight, she has a smile formed on her face.

While stuck in my thoughts, my gaze ended up settling on Angel, and Klein had come up to me, with a suspicious look on his face, one of mixed emotions. He said, "Well, Kirito, I hafta admit that I had tons of fun today!" With a slight pause, his enthusiasm still running strong, "But I gotta go! I got pizza on order, it's 5:25 and the pizza is for 5:30!" He then notices my seemingly preoccupied expression, and then says "You know, gawking at her is only going to creep her out, even though, as a man, I can understand the wish to." I suddenly noticed the provocative look on his face, and nearly burst out laughing, but I noticed how embarrassing what he just said was. "I wasn't looking at her like that! I was watching.. her form, and how she moved..."

I looked around for Angel, and had noticed that she had moved to the meadow nearby, and was laying down. I felt a strong urge to go over too her, but refrained, and Klein, noticing my shift in gaze, commented saying, "Hey Kirito, your gonna leave that poor girl all on her own, to fend for herself?" I decided to go over to her, probably just due to curiosity more than anything. As I laid down, she shuffled in her sleep and nuzzled against my thigh, as I was laying in a traditional manner. She had also grabbed one of my sleeves, even though I harbored no ill intentions, I was fairly embarrassed.

She had a smile on her face, and a very slight but noticeable blush on her cheeks, she seemed to be having a fairly pleasant dream. "So, I'm gunna be joining some friends later, and you can come along if you want to!" posing the question with a cheery tone. "I have to decline, I shouldn't leave this "poor girl on her own, to fend for herself," right?" Klein blushes at this, and I laughed, definitely a weird one he is. Eventually, after giving a moments hesitation, he goes to log off, however, before he could get through the long menus, Angel starts shuffling around, and then stretches. Wiping the sleep from her eyes, she looks up to me, and then jumps off of me.

She looks over to us, and then asks what's going on, again using that choppy system, but now that I think about it, I think that this is amazing, the amount of thought put into those whom may have a hearing disability and so on. After hearing that Klein was reading, she says "Well, I want to go home and read The Tempest, something about having a real book in your hands can't be beat." So, she and I get up, and I look up to her, as she types something out. "Thanks for everything, I really appreciated it. Sorry for all of the trouble!" She slightly bows her head after she types it. I say in response, and without thinking I might add, "If your thankful, would you say my name?"

I probably said it because I was curious what her voice actually sounded like, she types okay, and we both look to Klein, whom is fidgeting with his hands and looking anxiously at the clock. When he finally realizes that we are staring, he just forces a smile and says "Really, whatever you guys wanna do, but please, hurry." So, then my gaze goes back to Angel, whom opens her mouth and hesitantly says "K..K-k-ki-kiri...to?" She rolls round the word, like tasting an unfamiliar food dish, a new taste in her mouth, perhaps. She didn't stop saying my name though, and after chanting it, with an excited look on her face, I stop her with my hand, because it is embarrassing to hear it over and over.

Suddenly, Klein shouted, "THE PIZZA!" and starts bawling, it's already like 6:00pm. "Well guys, it's time to go." I finally said, and then started to count down from 3, so that we would leave together after go. "3," *slight pause* "2," *longer pause* "1," *I glance over at Angel* "G-!" As I was about to chant out 'Go!" All of us were engulfed by bright blue flames, and when they dispursed, we were brought into the huge city center of the Town of Beginnings and I looked over at the other two, whom had faces of which would resemble dear caught in headlights. I looked over to what they were looking at, and painted at the top of the sky, was a huge, but hard to read due to the distance, label, which read, "Warning." Only the future could tell what this warning is...


	4. Kayaba's True Intentions

-Chapter 4=The Death Game Begins- (This was mostly in Angel's shoes)  
As Angel stared intensely at the flashing warning sign, it started to multiply, and within 10 seconds, the whole town square was surrounded by a strange dome of these hexagons reading "Warning" and "System announcement" suddenly, a red liquid started oozing out from in between the signs. Then, it looked like the red liquid was taking shape, an electric current started flowing through it. Until it finished taking shape and a hooded figure was staring down at us. However, this hooded figure it did not have a face 'It is not possible that, this, is the game master!'. she continued staring, until a booming voice started speaking.

"Attention players, I welcome you, to my world" 'What is he saying?' I thought to myself, suddenly, a message popped up, words being added as he said them 'ohm, well, I am glad they considered the deaf people in this!' "My name is Akihiko Kayaba, and as of this moment, I am now in control of this world." 'This guy must be nuts!' I thought to myself. "I am sure most of you have already noticed an item missing from your main menus, the log out button" 'I don't know what I would have done if it wasn't for that button you pressed if you can't talk, I would have been in the dark!' she thought. "Let me assure you, this is not a defect in the game, I repeat, this is not a defect. This is how Sword Art Online was designed to be". 'You have got to be kidding me, is this guy serious' I thought, shaking my head. "You cannot log yourselves out of SAO, and no one from the outside will be able to shutdown or remove the Nerve Gear from your head. If anyone attempts to do so, a transmitter inside the Nerve Gear will discharge a microwave signal into your skull, destroying your brain and ending your life".

'That is possible, it is all in the wiring. I think that it was somewhere in a site I checked out saying that Nerve Gears are dangerous, of course, at the time I believed that all to be lies due to the fact that the Nerve Gears are, well, where, just used as games.' she thought, 'How will I let everyone know?!' she hit herself on her head and a few people looked at her strangely, before continuing looking at Kayaba.

"Despite my warning," he continued, I was focused on looking at the screen that was typing everything for me, since I couldn't understand anything that he was saying "the families and friends of some of the players have attempted of removing the Nerve Gear. An unfortunate decision at the least, as a result, the game now has 213 less players than when it began. They have been deleted from both Aincrad and the real world." Angel looked up at him as news coverage started surrounding him, there was tons of them and they were all circling him.

"As you can see, international media outlets have round the clock coverage of everything, including the deaths. At this point, it is safe to assume that the likelihood of a Nerve Gear being removed is minimal at best. I hope that this brings you a little comfort as you try to clear the game. It is important to remember the following, there is no longer anyway to revive someone in the game, if your HP drops to zero, your avatar will be deleted from the system, forever, and the Nerve Gear, will simultaneously destroy your brain", Angel never broke eye contact with the message, she was intent on seeing what he had to say next. 'There is no possible way for this to be a joke anymore.'

"There is only one way for a player to escape now," 'and that is?' she thought eagerly, waiting for the rest of the sentence to come to light, well, be written down on the message board for her. "You must clear the game", 'That actually, makes a bit of sense, so, you have to finish the game in order to be rid of the game. I wonder if the other players can understand...' "Right now you are all gathered on floor 1, the lowest level of Aincrad. If you can get to the boss chamber and defeat the boss, you may advance to the next floor, defeat the boss on floor 100, and you will clear the game!" the message told me. '100 levels... Incredible, it's hard to believe that it is even possible when the Beta-testers had 2 months and unlimited lives and could not defeat past floor 10!'

"Last but not least, I have placed a little present in the item storage of every player, please, have a look." Angel slowly opened her item menu, 'What could I possibly do with a mirror? Well, I guess I should take it out, since everyone else is.' All around me I noticed people were getting engulfed by blue flames, she quickly was engulfed as well. 'I wonder why the flames do not burn' However, I guess since I didn't lie about my appearance nothing changed, I still had the gear I was wearing, but, all my items that were in my storage were gone 'Why would all of our items be deleted?' (If you watched the first episode of Sword Art Online when Kirito went to pull out the mirror guess what, **it was the **_**only**_** item in his item storage**)

When the flames other people got engulfed in cleared away, I was guessing that they would delete the avatars and show peoples true faces, etc. and I was proven to be right. Everyone else seemed to drastically change, it surprised me how much other people had changed themselves when they selected there avatars, I am guessing since I didn't change at all that they assumed that nothing had changed for me, because a few people who noticed me earlier had noticed that even though the blue flames had engulfed me too, I had not changed. There is nothing that I can do though, because I cannot speak or understand when other people speak, it is futile to try and solve the problem.

Others that were not close to me were doing a few things, some looked at themselves in shock, some tried to find there friends. While, in a few rare cases some where offended by the looks of the person they were talking to. There was even a couple that turned out to be both boys, it was very amusing, and I could not help myself from giggling a tiny bit.

After a few more seconds of confusion, my message board popped back up, and Kayaba started talking again "Right now, you are probably be wondering 'Why? Why would Akihiko Kayaba, developer of Sword Art Online and Nerve Gear do this? Ultimately, my goal was a simple one, the reason I created Sword Art Online, was to control the fate of a world of my design." 'I knew he was nuts!' I threw my hand up in the air in victory. 'knew it!' After a few more seconds he continued.

"As you can see, I have completed my goal. This marks the end of the tutorial, and the official launch of Sword Art Online. Players, I wish you the best of luck" I suddenly became completely submerged in my thoughts as Kayaba turned back into the red liquid and seeped back in between the tiles, and as the tiles disappeared. Then, I suddenly crept back into reality. 'I heard that there is a town close to here, soon all the monsters near here will all be gone, so it would be better to go to the next town and train there. I wonder if I could meet a friend there!' she thought, then started running.


	5. Let The Game, BEGIN!

-Chapter 5=Let The Game Begin-

She hastily pulled out her map and started heading for the closest town. When a Timber Wolf jumped out at her, she felt herself start to change, her heart started thumping in chest, and she slowly started to zero in on the target. Unable to look away, she focused in on it, allowing her power to slowly build up, before suddenly striking. She leaped and landed on the wolf's back, stabbing it in the head leaving a lethal blow, the wolf howled painfully as it disintegrated into thousands of little crystals, more wolves started to come out of the woods, and onto the trail that she was on. She felt herself let go, letting her body do as it wished as it fought for life, because she knew that this would be a life or death situation.

She went in for a second wolf, charging mercilessly until clumsily slipping, causing one of the wolves to pounce on her, she could hear the wolf panting, and felt as the slobber of the wolf slowly drooled down and hit her square in the face. The wolves long claws started to dig through her skin, and gradually started draining her health. Just as the rest of the savage beasts were about to pounce on her, she grabbed her sword and put the blade through the wolves stomach, and slit it across as the wolf whimpered in pain, before, just like the first wolf to challenge her, it vanished into thousands of small crystals that started floating away before disappearing. All the wolves decided to charge at her at once, before she could even think about what she was doing, she twisted one of her legs and did a twirl, holding both of her hands on her sword, unlike when she usually just has one hand on her blade.

Angel kept the twirl up until she noticed the familiar particles of death swirling around her, meaning the end of the battle. A screen popped up saying what she had gotten from the battle with them, she knew that she was close to the next town though, because the wolves were a sort of protection to try and prevent people from entering. Angel felt her mind start to fog up and she fell to the ground, as her eyes closed she saw that there were travelers also heading for the town, and that they were heading directly towards her, she also noticed that her health was in the red.

* * *

**_-=A Few Days Later=-_**

Angel woke up with 2 people surrounding her, both were boys. One had golden hair, and green eyes, his hair covered one of his eyes, but he seemed to be annoyed at this fact seeing as he was constantly swaying it about. The other boy, he had blonde hair, and blue eyes, his hair was a bit spikey, but looked like it would be soft to the touch, it also looked as though it was styled, and that it would change a lot if it were simply combed. Both of them were decent looking, the blonde haired one was short, and a bit on the scrawny side, while the golden haired boy seemed a bit taller, he was built. Also, both of them looked her age, and she noticed that it seemed as though there armor was on the low side seeing as it looked a bit torn.

She sent a message to them reading "_May I ask what happened? And who you two maybe?_". A message was sent in response by the boy with blue eyes, the more she looked at them the brighter they seemed... Angel seemed a bit intrigued by them. "_I am the blonde haired boy, my name is Hajime, and Goldilocks over there is Yuichi. We both found you as you passed out by the Timber wolves,_" although it was from Hajime, his username is Yoshiro. It seems that Yuichi's username is his name though, like hers. She smiled at the thought. "_The battle was amazing, I have never seen anything like it before, you are a great fighter, I see that your username is Angel, and it suits you. So, what is your name? You truly are a great fighter, although I think you suffered some injuries that caused you to pass out right after, we rushed over and killed the few Timber Wolves that remained._"This time it was Yuichi who sent the message. "_My name... Is Angel.__ Also, arigato. I owe you two my life. However, I need to go train, currently I am only at level 3._" She sent this message to both of them, before taking her boots, both of the guys grabbed one of her shoulders and typed with there other hands.

"_Would you join our guild? It is called The Swordsmen._" they both sent the message at around the same time. "_Sorry, currently I am a Solo Player, and I plan to stay that way for a while, till I get strong enough to think of myself as good enough to be in a guild._" she responded and then started walking out the door, before turning and waving goodbye.

She started to slowly walk through the town, and started to get a feel for everything there, 'It is all so calm! I love it, it is so rare that a place can actually radiate peace and tranquility' As she was walking she noticed a familiar face and ran towards him. 'It's Kirito!' She thought to herself happily, "Kirito!" she yelled his name, even though that was all she could say, she was happy that she could say it, he turned around surprised, "Angel?" Kirito said aloud.

* * *

**_-=Kirito's Point of View (5 Minutes Earlier)=-_**

"Hmm, I have a lot of stuff that I don't need." he said shuffling through his item storage, "I should probably head to the shop and sell it all, than maybe get a new sword." So, he started to head of on his journey to go and sell everything, he decided to go look at the swords first, and he stood near the shopping district of the town for a while, trying to find a sign of a blacksmith's shop when he suddenly heard his name ring through the crowd. He recognized the voice that said it almost instantly, and the voice that he heard was none other than "Angel?"

He got a message from Angel that read "_Kirito, is that you? By the Blacksmith's shop?_" 'So I was standing behind it the whole entire time' He face palmed as he realized that he was. "_Yes it is me, I have not seen you since launch day._" he responded to her question, both happy, relieved, and a bit embarrassed at the same time. 'I still can't believe I was pretty much leaning on it the entire time...' "_Yeah, I got attacked by a pack of Timber Wolves and passed out for a while after beating them. At least I gained two levels from the attacks._" 'I wonder what she was thinking heading out here without going with someone, then again' he thought while resting a hand on his chin, 'I did that too...' "_Impressive, are you here for a Sword too?_" he typed, after breaking out of his train of thought. "_Yes, if you were looking for this place than out of curiosity. Why were you leaning against the place for so long?_" she asked a bit gingerly. "_Well, it has been a while since I have been here_" he typed his response quickly than crossed his arms.

"_I am very sorry than, this is my first time I have ever been here though, and I saw that you were leaning right above the Sword sign._" Kirito moved a bit then looked up, seeing that she was right. "_Why don't we go and get some swords._" he responded after realizing his mistake.

* * *

_-=**Flashback, Kirito's Point of View, one day after official launch**=-_

Kirito laid his hand on the cheek that Angel had kissed while laying on his bed, 'Why did she do that?' he thought to himself, 'What a unique girl' he thought, trying to keep himself from calling her a negative name, he could not figure out why though. 'I wonder what she is doing right now, I hope she survived the first day. It definitely would not feel right to have lost her after I pretty much abandoned her and Klein at launch day, even though I didn't see her, she must have been so confused, because she could not understand anything of what Kayaba was saying. I hope that Kayaba had planned for people who were deaf.'


	6. A way of thanks and the bow of Angel's

_-=**Chapter 6= A way of thanks, and the bow of Angel's (In Kirito's Point of View : It is a cute little side story :))=-_**

They walk into the store, and both of them take a bronze sword and pay for it. Kirito sighs and sends a message saying "_I only came in here for your sake_" then both of them left. She tried saying Kirito's name again "K-kiri-Kirito!" he looked over at her 'It still surprises me when she says my username' "_Yes, Angel?" _She looked at him with a determined look on her face and typed "_Stay here! I will be right back!_" and she ran off.

**_-=A few minutes later=-_**

"_**Kiritoooo**!_" she yelled as she rounded the last corner. "_I got bread and water_" is the message she decided to send after thinking a few moments on her way back. She handed him his bread and took a nibble out of her own. After she got finished she started typing a message that was so fast Kirito couldn't keep track of where her hands were "_Kirito, can we go swimming? I think that it could possibly be a nice change of pace for a while to not have to fight or anything. I guarantee that you were constantly training before we met back up_"

'So she is asking to go swimming with me?' he thought to himself, he started blushing as he thought of her in a bathing suit, he gulped nervously trying to keep his blush down. Then, he typed a message saying "_Is there even a beach on Floor one?_", she shook her head yes and typed "_Can I show you? It is really more like a small pond but it would still be a lot of fun. Plus, we can fight the fish there if you want to train after the swimming!_" He looked at her for a moment and typed "_Okay_". While they were talking they did not notice that the two boys who saved Angel when she was almost killed by the Timber Wolves, had just found her and they yelled her name "ANGEL!"

'Who are they?' Kirito thought about who they could be for a few seconds, before giving up and asking her "_Angel, do you know who those to are?_" "So are you why Angel was in such a rush to leave?" both of the boys said in unison. 'She was went looking for me?' he thought, and started blushing, he was glad that Angel didn't notice his blush as he hid it from her view. "I don't think so" is how Kirito decided to respond to the two boys. "It is an honor to meet you, I am Yuichi, and the boy with blonde hair, is Hajime. We saved Angel after she almost got killed by some Timber Wolves, and she passed out for a few days, when she woke up she messaged us for a minute or two and just up and left after refusing to join our guild, we assumed there had to be a good reason, so we left it at that. Would you guys like to go train?"

Angel sent Kirito a message saying "_I think they have answered that question by now, so you know who they are?_" Kirito responded with an "_Yeah_" to Angel and told Yuichi "We were just about to head out, so sure." "_Can we swim at this small pond I found while training before the launch on launch day?_" she turned to the three and smiled, then sent a message saying "_Can you say please?_" to Kirito. "Please," then he sighed and looked at her as she tried to say it. "P-pl-plea-please!" she said sweetly. "How are we supposed to say no to that?" all three of the guys said in unison. Kirito was thinking about how cute her voice was, and with that they all set off to the pond that she was talking about

**_-=One hour later=-_**

When Angel came from the woods in a bathing suit all three guys pretty much lost their cool. Until, she sent a message to all three saying "Let's Swim", which snapped all of them out of their trance. 'I hope that she didn't notice me looking at her..." Kirito thought to himself. With that, Hajime and Yuichi ran into the water, but, Kirito had decided to stay behind, and Angel quickly sat beside him. Then, looked at him, worried. Kirito seemed to have this haze of confusion of the situation over him. "_Are you okay Kirito? You seem upset_" Kirito looked at her, surprised that she could notice his confusion.

He smiled and responded saying "_I am not really upset, just sorting a lot of things_" 'I hope that she doesn't notice I am blushing..." Kirito started getting a bit nervous, and she noticed it so she grabbed one of his hands. "Kirito?" she started to type, "_The whole reason we came here was to relax and swim! Please change and swim?_" she sent the message then smiled at him, and said "Please!" 'Why does she want me to swim too? I guess she just wants everyone to have fun, not just her. That's really sweet!_'_

_"Fine I guess I could swim with you guys, I can do all this thinking later_" she still had a hold of his hand, he noticed and blushed a bit deeper, then gulped trying to calm down so that she wouldn't notice it. "_Then Let's Go!_" she said and started walking to the little pond, and holding his arm tighter as though to assure that he wouldn't back out of it. 'I guess it could be fun to take a break for a while. When they got to the pond, she let go of his hand, and ended up tripping, but thanks to Kirito's speed he was able to catch her before she hit the ground.

'That could have been bad' he thought to himself, then noticed that she was blushing a crimson red because Kirito was still holding her. 'I better let her go before this get's awkward.' When he let her go she opened her message board and started typing, still blushing, 'Well, at least she doesn't try to hide the fact that she is blushing like I do, she sure is cute when she does it too...' "_Thank you, Kirito! I owe you, that probably would have been very embarrassing if I had fallen before I even got into the water!"_

He looked at her for one more second, she was wearing a bikini, it was mostly white, and he thought that it resembled her usual attire, the other color on it was a pure golden color. He smiled, then responded saying "_No problem_". She then put a hand in the water and splashed him in the face, then sent a message saying "_G_otcha!" before Kirito splashed her back, and within a few minutes both of them were soaked head to toe even though they had not gotten deeper than their knees in the water.

Hajime and Yuichi were both just watching the two and laughed a bit whenever something they found funny happened, they quickly realized that Kirito and Angel probably like each other but don't know it yet, judging by the blushes on both of their faces. "Kirito!" she said scornfully, as the bow that had been in her hair was whipped away by the water, letting her hair fall down, her hair was actually much longer than a normal girls, it reached all the way to her knees, but the way that she had it up in the bow made it to where her hair was only the middle of her back, which made it still look longer than normal, just not _**That**_long.

For most girls hair that long would look horrible, but when Kirito saw it his opinion was probably that it looked even better with it down than it did up. She started looking for the ribbon that held up her hair and eventually found it, but it took around 5 minutes of looking through the water with her eyes, which was very hard for her. She obviously was upset by then and asked "_Why did you pull the bow out of my hair?_" and Kirito put both of his hands up before typing "_Sorry, it was just an accident, I really did not mean to..._"

"_Could you please put the bow back into my hair? I like it a lot..._", Angel was losing her patience, which she usually had buckets of, but apparently she really deeply cared about her bow, because she was down to her last drop with it out of her hair 'Why does she like having the bow in her hair so much?' he sent a reply asking that question and she replied with "_Because I think I look cuter with it on, and, I have always liked bows, but the ones in this game kind of float, I thought that it was really neat the way that the laces of the bow tied everything in my outfit together, that is why._" So he just gave up, not wanting to admit that he thought that she looked cuter without the bow.

They both stepped outside of the water and she turned around so that he could put it in her hair 'Crap, I haven't really done a girl's hair before, well, I did Suzu's that one time but that was it, and it did not end well for her.' "_Is something the matter Kirito? If you do not wish to do it then I could ask Hajime or Yuichi to do it_" he thought about it, and decided he didn't want them to touch her hair, so he did it himself. 'Why does this bow mean so much to her? I guess it does tie her normal outfit together, but still...' Kirito was debating various things in his head until he had finished and proudly looked at the bow that held her hair back up in a pony tail, it was not perfect, but it was great in Kirito's mind.

"_Arigato, Kirito, thank you so much! I bet it looks great_" he could tell she was suddenly in a very good mood. She hugged him and typed thank you one more time. The second that she had hugged him, he had a flash back to when she kissed his cheek. 'Gee, she sure has a way of saying thank you...'


	7. Training Week

**_-=Chapter 7=Training Week (Hajime's Point of View)****=-_**

Kirito thought that training this week would be a good idea in order to prepare for the boss meeting that will happen in two weeks, and I would have to agree with him, we need to get as experienced as we can, to have a decent amount of safety when we decide to battle the boss! We will all be heading out in a few minutes from the inn that we were staying at. Angel, Kirito, and Yuichi are all stronger than me, I am a bit jealous! That is okay though, it would be strange if I wasn't, when it was just me and Yuichi there did seem to be something missing from our team, now that we have Kirito and Angel, we seem a bit like a full team!

"Okay guys lets go!" I yelled, running toward the door, Angel, Kirito, and Yuichi all were already waiting, I have to prove myself when we go and decide to train, I have to get this weakness off of my chest! Everyone pulled their arms toward the middle of a small circle the four of them formed "Lets, TRAIN!" yelled everyone but Angel, she just sent a message to everyone saying to be careful and to train hard. Angel sure is a weird girl, I understand the message sending but even with Kirito teaching her how to talk now, even though it is a slow process, she seems to be learning a lot, but she isn't really using it when Kirito isn't around.

We all started walking together, I do feel secure knowing that we have Angel and Kirito now on our team, it did take quite a bit of bothering to get them to join, the only reason I think that Angel decided to join was because Kirito did. With those two, I am sure that me and Yuichi are safe, I took Yuichi in originally because he is shy and is not the biggest fan of fighting and killing. He probably would have died if he was left all on his own, I couldn't handle that so I decided to invite him into a guild I formed. Yuichi and the others are now my closest friends.

"Yuichi, Angel, Kirito, you guys are all awesome!" he said aloud, before realizing it. "Thank you" Yuichi was the only one that replied, Kirito said "Thanks" but he mumbled it to quietly for him to hear, and I think that Angel was paying to much attention to the road ahead to hear what I said, let alone understand. Ahead of us is the hunting ground, it has a lot of monsters ahead, because it is in a place few people go to, Kirito was showing the way, because this place was not mapped out, it was very hard to find your way through this area, but Kirito seemed to know it pretty well.

Kirito told us all about it!

_-=**Brief Flashback**=-_

_"This place is one of the best because almost no one knows their way through this forest, and we are relatively close to it, so it will be perfect for training this week. This area was my favorite place for training, even though it is eerie, please do not get scared though, and if you get attacked say something, and one of us will be over their to help you as soon as we can." Kirito was speaking about the plans for the week, going into detail about the monsters, the monsters are all similar to the original boars that you found outside of the Town of Beginnings, but these boars are much stronger, and they will charge if you enter their field of view._

_"Kirito" I said out loud, then went over to Angel and pointed at her, "What is she supposed to do? She doesn't know how to talk". Kirito thought about it for a few minutes, "I can teach her like how she learned how to say my name, I will teach her for three days before we head out to train._

**_-=Back to the present=-_**

"We are here", Kirito said quietly, "Everyone be dead silent, and wait for a few boar to show up before battling." Within a few seconds, five boar surrounded the team. Kirito looked around, noticing more boars slowly making their way out, and I did too, I was surprised that Kirito noticed all them so easily. "There is around 10 of the boars guys, we need to attack now, before we get killed." I said quietly, Kirito looked at me, then ran over to the boar and started to battle, when he started soon everyone followed. Angel took on three boars that was to my right, Kirito took on four that were behind me, I took just one boar, and Yuichi was trying to take on two.

'God this makes me feel weak,' I thought to myself, the others were fighting amazingly. Kirito, he was surrounded at all sides, and jumped up at the last second, causing all four boars to hit one another, and then he jumped down and stabbed a single boar in the back, then, killed another one before it could get up by stabbing it up the neck, nearly cutting its head off. Yuichi, he may not have looked very cool, but he was keeping both of the boars at bay by swinging at them, he could probably eventually kill both of them in a while. Angel, she used the same tactic as Kirito on two of the boars, then, she suddenly got hit by the third one, it sent her flying into a tree, and she seemed to have taken a lot of damage from it, seeing as her health went into the yellow, these must be really strong, to take that much health away from Angel with a single hit!

I stared back at the one I was supposed to be taking on, but it was to late, it smacked right into me, sending me flying, I was also put into the yellow by it's attacks, and by the time I found my way back to everyone all the boars were taken care of, but wait, something is missing... "Where is Angel?" I asked worried. "She went into the woods to try and find some water, she said she felt sweaty from the battle, she was able to kill all three of the boars she was challenging, but almost died doing it, she also refused my help, and Kirito's." Yuichi was explaining everything that happened. "And where is Kirito?" I asked, "He decided to train alone for a while, probably because Angel was tired and wanted time to recover from the battle. She is pretty determined you know, I am glad we found such great allies!" I nodded in agreement, now that I think about it, I probably would be dead without little shy Yuichi.

"You know Yuichi, I think I owe you my life. You calmed me down quite a bit, because when this death game started, all I could think about was winning, I was completely obsessed, and now, only two weeks later, everyone here as a friendship forming between one another, it really calmed me down. It all started when I decided I would take you in, even though it was really you who took me in. I hope that everyone can survive till the end." I said happily.

Until now, I haven't realized how lucky I am, but I think I can understand it just a little bit better now.

**_-=One Week Later=-_**

"Man! I can't believe how rigorous your training schedule is Kirito" I said out loud, Kirito just got back from the training week, during the week, he had almost no breaks, I thought that he was going to pass out of exhaustion at some point! He spent almost every waking moment he had training as hard as he could, he really is a strong willed player, I think that this week has really not only helped me, or Kirito, or Yuichi, or Angel, I think that it not only helped us, but the bond we shared. There was at least one time during the week were each of us needed to ask for help from our fellow guild members, since we all decided to share experience, we all gained an equal amount during the week, except since Kirito was training so hard, we let him keep his experience from the last three days of the training, he said he didn't need it he just wanted to be stronger, but we wouldn't let him share any more.

By the time we left that week we almost completely cleared the place of all the Boar that was there, and I think what ever was left got to be destroyed by Kirito. I can guarantee that Kirito is way stronger than any of us, even Angel, I have to say, even though I invited them to the guild, it seems as though Kirito and Angel sort of lead it now.

You know, everyone on this team has some amazing trait that makes them unique, that makes them stand out of the crowd, but I am just some guy. If you need proof then I will show you, I want to be amazing like them, like Kirito, Angel, and Yuichi.

Kirito, he is an insane fighter, and even though he is still just in the first floor, he looks as though he belongs in at least floor ten, I have yet to see someone surpass his swordsmanship. I noticed something else about Kirito that stands out, he seems to take a few moments to analyze the target before attacking it, just watching it, watching it's attacks, and then he just strikes, and when he does it looks amazing, he lets his sword start to glow and strikes, and for a moment it leaves behind the color green. Angel's sword when it glows from attacking, or what ever you call it, her color is white, and Yuichi's is blue. I, am red.

Angel, she is deaf in the real word, but that is pretty much all we know about her traits in the real world. She had some sort of tendency of completely losing herself in a battle, when she does, it even startles me, I never want to be on her blades business end. Despite that, she has frozen twice in battle, and both times it was in the middle of an attack. I feel as though she has something that is starting to hold her back from battling with all of her might, because even though she lost herself a few times, her freezing scared me, I bet it scared everyone. What could be holding her back? We really need to find out more about one another, because we truly do not know much about one another.

Yuichi, I feel really bad for him. He joined the game because he wanted to be a Beast Tamer, because he heard that a few people have done it and he wanted a creature to call his own. In real life he is a real lover of life, he loves all animals and all people the same, making it very hard for him to succeed playing this game, seeing that you have to kill stuff a lot, it makes me feel bad for the guy. He probably would not even be playing this game if it wasn't for him getting trapped in her like the rest of us and if I could I would do anything to get him home so that he doesn't have to kill anything else. It probably kills Yuichi inside, even though it is just a game, when he sees an animal, it is an animal virtual or real, at least that is what he told me.

However, me, all I can do is be monster bait...

This week, I did realize something though, Yuichi, or Angel, or Kirito, we didn't get improved at all, in a way, we are all sort of a family now, even though it has only been a few weeks, through everything that happened, out of 10000 people, we all found each other and decided to become friends, when you think about it like that, it really is like a miracle, and there is no other way to successfully put our meeting into words, because think about it, I met Yuichi when he refused to kill anything and was staying at the town of beginnings, and convinced him that I would help him get over his fear (This is another story that will be covered in a later chapter), I met Angel when she passed out from almost dying from the Timber Wolves soon after, and then some how she found Kirito, and the four of us some how became friends, the only word to describe it, Miracle.


	8. The Meeting

**_-=Chapter 7=The Meeting=-_**

'It has been around two weeks since Kirito, Hajime, Yuichi, and I had training week, which was when we spent a week training really hard to become stronger, after that, we still trained a bit, but not as vigorously, except Kirito, who was away a lot training to become stronger. We all have been training a lot in order to stabilize a team bond and be able to trust one another a little more. Kirito accepted an invitation to join the two's guild and I accepted as well, even though it took a while to earn my trust, they got it. Since we all know each other quite well now, it is nice to know that we have people we can count on, other than if we were all solo players.

It seems as though since Kirito had found out about the meeting concerning the first stage boss and defeating it, he has had something that has been bothering him quite a bit, I don't know what it is, but I feel as though the reason that he is so troubled has something to do with us. It could just be that he wants to protect us but I am not to sure. I am a bit intimidated by the fact that we need to defeat 100 bosses in order to beat the game yet it has been an entire month and we have not defeated the boss on floor one.

It is leading me to start believe that we won't be able to survive to get to the 100th floor, and it is a really terrifying thought, I remember how I have almost died twice already, and without my friends, I would already be dead. Even though I really try my hardest, no matter what I do, I just can't get strong enough, I want to be a help to everyone. I wonder if they would let me be a healer for people who get hurt during the boss fight, I could probably find some healing potions/crystals if I kill enough monsters, I have a few now, but I don't think that it would be enough.

Kirito has been spending a lot of time with me trying to teach me how to talk, I could not thank him enough, for now I can speak the basics. I felt like a child when trying to pronounce the words correctly. Although I can't describe the happiness that flows through me when I learn a new word that I can speak! I owe Kirito so much I just wish that there was some way to show him how thankful I am. You see, he spends the time after sunset to do all of the training, because after dark, even with the moonlight, it can get really hard to see in the forest, which is the place where we all train, even though we have pretty much wiped out all the boar, we went to another area last week and found more of them, so I guess they are not ALL gone.

Today, we have to go to the meeting, and I hope that none of my friends get hurt to badly by the fight, now that I am thinking about that though, could that possibly be what was bothering Kirito? Was he worried about losing one of us? They all have really started to become very dear to me and I don't know what I would do if I lost them...' a shiver went down Angel's spine at the thought of loosing one of her valued friends 'I know Hajime, and Yuichi are my friends but what should I call Kirito?, anyways, I think that it is about time to leave for the meeting, I still have not developed my language very much though, so I still have to use the messaging board a lot.'

"T-Time to go" I noticed that my voice seemed to ring throughout the inn that we were all staying at. Kirito, Hajime, and Yuichi popped their heads into the room I was staying at, I was just finishing combing my hair when they came in, I pulled on my boots and sent a message saying "_Guys, I think that it is time for all of us to head to the meeting regarding the first boss!_" I sat down on the bed for a moment then got up. "Kirito, those lessons you are having for her seem to be working," Yuichi told Kirito, surprised on how much she is learning. "Let's go guys!" I ran to the door and waited for Kirito, Yuichi, and Hajime to come along to.

I decided that I would stand between Kirito and Yuichi as we walked to the meeting, by the time us four got there, there was already around 30 players there. We all sat down on the left end of the bleachers and waited for the speaker to start talking, a few people seemed to be staring at us suspiciously, and then they reverted their attention back to the speaker as he clapped twice and started talking, Kirito told me that he would message me the details of what he said, but I got quite a few bits and pieces on my own, though it wasn't nearly enough to understand everything that he had probably said.

The Speaker said that he wanted to thank people for coming, you know, the average introduction. Then he told us his name, which is Dabiel, the next thing he said I did not understand, but people around us starting laughing, Yuichi and Hajime to, Kirito seemed to remain calm but I thought I caught him smile for a second. Kirito sent me a message saying that he claimed to be a knight, I giggled at that, but returned my attention to Diabel. Even though I couldn't understand most of what he was saying, he seemed to be very determined. Some people also starting clapping and I think a few cheered. I put my hands together a few times, but I may have over done it, because I was clapping a little longer than I should have and people started staring, oh well, I haven't heard myself clap before.

Then he said something about parties, I assumed we were already set, since we had the four of us, but then, I saw a hooded figure out of the corner of my eye. They were all alone and didn't seem to have anyone to team up with. "Kirito, they are alone" I told him, I wanted everyone to feel like part of the team, so when I asked to go and talk to them he said yes. As I started to make my way toward the shady figure, I noticed that no one else seemed to be coming, so I continued. I am not fantastic at talking yet so I figured that my best bet was to send a message explaining the situation, here is what it read.

_"Hello, I have noticed that you seem to be a Solo Player, and I think that we all need to be grouped up, so, if you would wish, I would love to have you be with my team for this one battle in order to help you out. I can understand if you do not want to, but I really think that it would be for the best if you did this. By the way, I am Angel, I will leave you with an invitation to join our party, and if you join it or not it is completely up to you."_ She took a moment to study it, then accepted it quietly. "Thank you" I said aloud, "That, is our team" I said pointing to the 3 boys below us.

Kirito was just waiting sitting patiently, thinking about something, which is something he seems to be doing a lot, he had one hand on his chin, Hajime and Yuichi seemed to have whispered something to each other. "Would you come and please join us?" I said, before turning and making my way back, they decided to have come with me, 'So their username is Asuna? That is a girls name! Could she be a girl too?' "Kirito, Yuichi, and Hajime!" the three looked at me, I wrote to them "_This is our new teammate, they will just be with us for the boss fight, unless they chooses to stay with us._" they all shook their heads in agreement, and Asuna took a seat next to us, ether no one else noticed her username under her cursor, they didn't care, or they don't know Asuna is a girls name.

Suddenly, someone screamed out "HOLD UP JUST A SECOND!" and jumped down next to Dabiel. He started talking about how some people needed to apologize to those who have died so far thanks to the game. Then Dabiel said something about him referring to the ex-beta-testers. Then this guy, apparently named Kibaou, continued with his rant, saying how they took all the easy quests, and how they are all to blame for abandoning the normal players come the start of this game. I am starting to get a bit agitated with this guys irritable attitude, I can't have him talking poorly about those who have helped more than he believes.

I decided that I would send him a message, so, his user is Kibaou is it? Now then, "_Dear Kibaou, please do not judge those who you know nothing of. ~Angel_" She debated for a moment to send it or not. Then decided to, 'I don't think that it could hurt him to much to let him know my mind...' she sent the message to him, he paused his ranting for a moment, seeing the new message, and when he read it, he yelled "So, who is this Angel?" Angel, hesitantly stood up. "My name is Angel." everyone looked at me, I got so nervous. As I was about to sit down, because I knew I could explain why Beta-testers should not be blamed later.

A dark skinned man walked down, he was very muscular and was tall as well. He started to talk about the guide books, which is something I knew about as well, I can't help but think of this Kibaou to be a thick headed character. Agil, so that is his name! The name of the guy who defended those others were jealous of, that sure is an interesting character trait, but he is just stating the truth. It is good to know that not all the people outside of my group of friends are complete looneys. I seriously need to thank the guys later for translating everything as fast as they could.

When everything was over, I stayed behind while everyone else left to go back to the inn, except the shady girl, who stayed behind, waiting for me to get done. When I initially came over there, Diabel looked at me, and he didn't seem to be to happy about the message I had sent to Kibaou, who was also still here, looking at me with a decent amount of hate in his eyes... "Gomen" I said and bowed my head, I hope what I said to him didn't impact him to much, I just don't like it when people do stuff like that, it ticks me off... Then I turned back to Diabel, who was starting to talk to someone else.

I looked at his username one last time, to make sure I would send it to the write person, then sent a message that said "_Hi, I am Angel! I would like to be the healer for the boss fight, so that if people get injured then they will have someone who can heal them, instead of fighting, I believe it would be a much better use for me, if you refuse, I will fight to the best of my abilities._" He nodded his head yes, then typed "_If you wish to help other players when they are in need, take these, and remember that the battle is tomorrow. So, you should probably go and catch up to your friends._" Diabel handed me a few healing crystals and a health potion.


	9. Illfang,A Death Threat,&Angel's Jealous?

**_-=Chapter 9=Illfang, A Death Threat, and Angel's Jealousy(Not Sure if it is Diabel or Diavel so just go with it please, bare with me)=-_**

'When we first got here for the boss fight, Diabel did another speech, and now me and the others are all going to go in to take on Illfang the Kobold Lord. As we stepped in, the stone cave turned into a beautiful stained glass that covered the walls, and at the end of the this new place, was a throne, it reminded me of a place that maybe someone who was royal would live in... If it was not for Illfang I would probably take some time just to look around, it truly is a beautiful sight, the stained glass came in many different colors and the light that seemed to fill the room, although you would never be able to understand how, reminded you of the warmth that the sun brought in, the only thing is, there was an uneasiness about this room, probably caused by the boss himself.

The boss, it was a hideous beast, he seemed to radiate this disgusting aura that almost made you want to look away, even though it would cause your death. As soon as Diabel called the attack, Asuna and Kirito seemed to work as though they were a team for their entire life, as they worked together to help bring down Illfang's minions, Kirito was using some ability that temporarily disarmed the beasts for maybe a few seconds at most, then Asuna would charge in, and attack them right in their weak spot, which seemed to be the center of their chest, it was quite intriguing to watch, and made me want to battle with them too.

Now, the boss itself, most of the parties were tackling it, and not the minions, which makes sense, the sooner you kill the boss the less you have to deal with those minion characters. They seemed to be doing really well with the beast, I wasn't seeing anyone get hit by him, and it seems as though they are handling the boss in a very tactical way, they must have had some sort of meeting where they discussed a battle plan that I did not attend, not that I would understand, I will just ask Kirito about it later on. I think even if they did Kirito did not slip out of the inn long enough to attend some meeting even if there was one.

The boss is now in the red of the fourth health bar, and it seems as though something is not quite right though, I mean, when he threw his blade he was using, he did not just throw the current one, but his Katana as well... The Guidebook was not correct in this regard and I think something might have changed since the beta test, I will have to ask Kirito about that too once this battle is over, look! Diabel is starting to run over toward him, and the boss... how is it moving so fast?! It is jetting around and the color yellow is appearing, I noticed that Kirito was trying to yell out to him, but Diabel wasn't listening, and by the time he was it seemed like it was to late.

I ran over toward him and went right in front of Diabel, sprinting as fast as I could to get there at the very last second, I took a lethal blow and went flying into a near by wall, people need Diabel way more than they need me, he was able to rally the people, and get them excited to battle. I looked over at my health bar, it was still diminishing, and after a few more seconds of consciousness, I drifted in and out of consciousness, as I watched Kirito run up to the boss, he seemed intent on killing the boss, I wonder why?... zzz

**_-=One Hour Later=-_**

I slowly opened my eyes, is Diabel and the others okay? This is the question that kept reentering my mind, when I looked around and finally noticed my surroundings, we were in the boss room, but there was no longer a boss, the room was bright, you may even say it looked lively with everyone still cheering. When I looked ahead I met Kirito's gaze and blushed, I can't control it really. Everyone stopped for a moment when they had saw that I had woken up, a few people cheered, and some others sat there grumpily, you know, people like Kibaou.

I got up and put one hand on my head "What happened after the boss battle?" I said it without even realizing it, as though I was fluent with the language, I am curious about how that happened but a bit happy as well, because now I can talk with my friends, my voice is a bit higher than I ever thought it would be, I guess I would have never found out how my voice sounded to me if it wasn't for this game, despite it being some game that can bring death to those who's health points falls to zero, it still seems to be a break through, regardless of why the game was created, it was created, and it is a genius invention, and Akihiko Kayaba really out did himself.

This kind of made me wonder about how what would happen if the genius actually had used this software for good, all that it could have done for the world, but he decided to waste all of this on some death game, really a tragedy if you ask me, if only he could have seen what it has done for me... It is so interesting to think about all that this game **_could_**have turned out to be... Anyways, I hope that some day I can make a game like this, except, hopefully it won't kill anyone... but it would be a software for people like me, people who can not hear or see in the real world will be given a chance to in this gaming world!

Hmm... I have a message alert, I should probably check it later, because a lot of people are around me right now and they could possibly read it... *People were cheering her on and she suddenly zapped back into reality* "Thank you, Angel, the name suits you, you saved my life" Diabel said happily, I responded with "You are the only one who can successfully bring all these people together, you truly are an intriguing individual!" It really is true though, think about it, people from all different walks of life have joined together to help bring down this single boss, and it was done by the leadership originally of one person, Diabel, compared to him I am just a little shrew...

" If I was in your shoes Diabel, I would have probably been to shy to do anything, despite the situation being calm and everyone supporting you" I was still thinking out loud. 'What would have happened if Diabel was the one who took the blow?' this is another question that kept my churning in my head, suddenly a stabbing pain hit me like a sack of bricks, it was more like a mental anguish.I have never understood Jealousy, except in a rare few occasions, and all the people I was jealous of? They were normal high school students, they got to live life carefree, with families and friends that were normal, but me, I never got to do that, because of my stupid memory and my dad who pushed me to do better before he passed away, which made me determined to make him as proud as I could.

I may have just realized something today, I may be some smart deaf girl, with family ties to fame and fortune, but in all reality, all I have ever wanted to do in life was just to be a normal teenager... It was just because I never got the chance to figure that out myself because I was too busy working as hard as I could, so I always was on the verge of passing out, not much time there for thinking about what I wanted, because I was **way** to busy trying to accomplish what my dad had worked so hard for, normal teenagers take advantage of their gifts, and have a tendency not to see what is right in front of them.

(I am a teen and I know this from experience, it sucks, I tend not to cherish life's greatest gifts till they are gone...)

Well, I guess that the days of just having worry free fun are just beginning, the only reason I would call them fun is because I really didn't have to worry about some business I was doomed to take control of. Even though I have a lot to think about on my hands, like what is going to happen to the business if I die, and also, what if this all turns out to be some joke that Akihiko came up with. But really, what is on my mind is, that I need to see if I can figure out my feelings, I still don't know how I feel about Kirito in certain regards, and even though I know Hajime, and Yuichi are friends, what about Asuna? I can't believe I am thinking this way, even though it could all be true, and I do not care how selfish it is to think this way. I love **everyone** here because they all gave me this ability I never had in the real world, they let me relax, have fun, **enjoy myself**. I owe them all so much, and I didn't even see it before now, because I was thinking to much to see everything that I have ever wanted is right in front of me! Sometimes I can be so arrogant, but that is okay, because if I wasn't I would not be teenager...

I hope Kirito, Yuichi, and Hajime all know how much they mean to me, and if they do not, then I will not hesitate to tell it to them, because it would all be true. They all mean the world to me, this world to me, I would probably not even **_be_ **here if it wasn't for Kirito spending all day on **_Launch Day _**to teach me how to fight, and I also wouldn't be here if Yuichi and Hajime hadn't saved me from those Timber Wolves, it is all so unbelievable how lucky I really am to have them, I just hope they all realize they are part of this team, and I will always be their for them, no matter what happens, or what the cost is!

_-=**Three Hours Later**=-_

We are starting to walk around, Kirito thinks he knows where the inn is, but there is no map out yet since we had just concurred the boss on floor one, so it will surely take a while to find everything, but I will try to build a mental map of everything as we walk along, and I can only hope that it will help us later on... We turned a corner and the inn was the third house on the left of the intersection of walkways, 'Here it is!' I thought to myself happily. We all walked in and paid for separate rooms, I feel as though soon this whole floor will be booming with life come the news of the triumph that had happened today, but for now, there is only a few people and the AI's, such as the one that runs this vary inn.

I know that a lot of things have happened today, but I am glad about one thing, I was finally able to realize that I have had my biggest dream come true in such a dreary way, it just makes me happy though, regardless of why, or how. The guys, even though I thought they purchased separate rooms, seems to have all went into Kirito's room, and probably against Kirito's liking as well. Seeing as I could only hear Hajime and Yuichi laughing their hearts out at something. I would probably be lucky to hear Kirito to laugh in any situation, he is really a serious person, but he can be a fool, do not get me wrong.

Oh yeah! The message I had gotten, the MB is still flaring off, I had just forgotten it with all the celebration that was going on earlier today, ever since the boss battle everything has seemed to be so surreal, I am glad to be here, though I am not sure just how I survived yet, I did. Now then for that message I had received... I clicked on it and here is what the following message said:

"_You will die come the end of this game, there will be no more escape roots ~HeathCliff_" 3... 2... 1... what?...


	10. Death Threat Continued

"_You will die come the end of this game, there will be no more escape roots ~HeathCliff_" (3...2..1..) 'What? Have I read this correctly? Who is HeathCliff, and why would he want me dead... I guess he could be a she but that is besides the point... I just don't understand the meaning of this I guess, the note clearly states that I will die, but why at the end of the game? What sort of escape roots did I take, I didn't know I had taken any sort of escape root... I wonder what that could possibly be about...

Should I tell my friends about this threat of death? Should I leave it to myself? I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO! I don't want to worry any of my friends with my problems, but how would they react if I had died? Why can I now understand and communicate easily using language? Before, even after Kirito taught me, I knew only the basics, and that was why it took a lot for me to understand just a little bit about Diabel's speech... I wonder what Kirito thinks about this whole entire situation... Well, about the language thing, not the other stuff...' these questions kept swirling in my head as I thought about what I had just witnessed...

How should I take this entire situation... What should I do about my friends, I am not sure if they would care about my death but knowing that there is a death threat out there for me it may mean that someone is going to go after our entire team... Kirito, he has great combat skills, and he is one of the strongest people in the game, this could cause jealousy, and just maybe a death threat to be put on his plate as well, and what if he reacts like I am? Then what would he do in this situation, he would probably keep it to himself too, just to protect us...

Then again, I am nothing like Kirito, I am only good at fighting because of my memory in seeing way to do things... WHAT SHOULD I DO?!' as these thoughts kept circling in my brain Kirito walked into theroom, obviously through with everything that was going on with Hajime, and Yuichi, I just noticed that he has a new black cloak on... It looks really neat, and suits Kirito quite well... He sat down beside me though, and I probably looked like I barely noticed him, which is the case... to many thoughts to think about... what should I do?!

I turned to look over at where I put my sword, because I was to lazy to actually put it away, and I didn't want it strapped on my back when I went to sleep... And when I looked over there, I met Kirito's gaze, he was a few inches from my own face but he was checking out what was written on my message board... It is to late to try and explain it away now, I could tell he has already read it because he had one hand on his chin in deep thought, I wonder why he does that though, it is pretty adorable. I shook my head trying to get that idiotic thought that had nothing to do with the situation out of my head, and started thinking again, until Kirito said started talking, he seemed way calmer about the situation than I was.

"You should be alright..." Kirito said, he was still thinking though, "You have me, Hajime, and Yuichi to protect you in any situation..." he started blushing, "Anyways, I don't think that he could get close to you without having to go through us. I haven't met anyone by the username of HeathCliff" he said, now that I think about it, it is true, I have the best friends I could ever ask for and they all will look out for me, just like if any of them were in this situation, if I had found out I would protect every single one of them, even if it would cause me to die, just like Diabel... Even though he was someone that I did not know very well, this is still a situation in which I am thinking about, because I have not figured out how I survived just yet.

For now, I think I should just let my worries go and just tell everyone what the message said, because I know that they will be out there to protect me. "Kirito," I said, I want to settle something, because ever since I brought it up with what would have happened if I had died... it has been bothering me. He looked up at me, he seemed to be a bit over the situation, just like me, I looked at him, we were quite close to each other and us being so close caused both of us to blush. "What would have you done if I had died back at the boss battle?" I asked.

He looked at me like I was stupid, which is a feeling that now seemed to overwhelm me, because I felt as though I should not have asked such an irresponsible question, he looked like he was a bit angry at me now. "Don't talk like that" his voice seemed to be chocked just a tiny bit, was he going to cry? "Don't ever do something like that again, we all need you, we are a team now, and we need all our players." He was now holding a really bright blush, but I am not sure if it was out of embarrassment from what he just said, or if it was from him just trying to keep back any tears that would form.

Just knowing that he cared made me settle down a bit, and knowing that we are part of a team, made me happy, I don't care how stupid I seemed when I had found out about it, but I was so happy, I am no longer alone, no matter what anyone tells me, I will always have Kirito, Yuichi, and Hajime, my friends! I hugged Kirito, half out of trying to cheer him up, because he seemed sad, and half because I just felt like hugging him, I wanted to protect him, even if it was from his own thoughts, I just wanted to protect him.

God, I must sound so stupid right now, thinking things like this, when really, if anything, he was the one protecting me, he was protecting me just like I want to protect him, he was protecting me from my own thoughts, I finally let go from him. He clearly was now blushing of embarrassment, but it is better than when I was unsure, I heard him say something, but it was to quiet for me to hear. He seemed a bit nervous now and was looking in maybe just a little bit of a better move "I promise that I won't try something like that, as long as you guys are not in danger, if you are, I will not hesitate to do what I did in the boss room, so you guys better watch yourselves!" I said, I kind of relaxed now, because I was in kind of a happy mood.

Today, is probably one of the best days of my life, and probably one of the scariest too. Reasons why? Kirito said that he doesn't want me to ever do something like saving someone else by almost sacrificing my own life, yet, I almost died. Also, I have a death threat sent in my name, but my mind was soothed by finding out that everyone close to me will watch out for me, so I don't care how stupid, or how selfish I sound, I am happy, and today is the best day of my life, and the scariest day of my life.


	11. Yuichi's Thoughts

_**Author's Note= Reread the guidelines, and found out that these are allowed, anyways, I am sorry guys, I was gone at Band Camp, I am going to be a freshman this year and it was my first year going, so I sort of forgot what day it was, since it was my first year going. I was not able to post an author not explaining myself, I am so sorry that I had not been around and had not posted a new chapter in almost a week. I hope all you dedicated readers know you are appreciated, and thank you for reading this. Band Camp made up for 5 of the days I posted nothing, and around 2 days because I was having a writers block on what to do next.**_

_**I hope that you guys can forgive me, and I will try to post chapters at least daily from now on, oh, and one of our many cats jumped on my laptop and broke a key off, so another problem I have been having, also, there may be another time I will not post anything because I am going to be auditioning for American Idol, and if I fail I will post something, thank you all, baiiii.**_

**_-=Three Months From The Previous Chapter=-_ (Yuichi's point of view)**

It has been around 3 months since Angel had gotten that death threat, and since we defeated the first boss, now we are living on floor 8, it took all of our combined Col to buy a house here. Angel, and Kirito are still the strongest people on the team, I am a few levels off of them and Hajime is around 5 levels behind, I feel bad for him, *Yuichi glanced at Hajime, Hajime was laying on the couch, relaxing after the training they did today* he must feel like he is not as good as us, he does not seem to see his own abilities.

I think that we have all come closer though, for Angel and Kirito it seems like they have developed a unique relationship different than us, but I guess it makes sense since Kirito taught her how to fight, and since she took a hit for him on floor 5, and probably saved him, seeing as he was on red and she was doing what she usually does, healing people, so she had full health. Angel, really is something, instead of battling, she decides that she is going to heal everyone who gets injured, I feel as though it is something that I would have given to Hajime, to make him feel more of use, she has saved quite a few lives over the months, it was a genuine surprise to see her chose healing people with potions and crystals over fighting, seeing as she looks like she enjoys battling foes.

I haven't seen anything even close to when Angel really gets challenged in a fight, she goes almost crazy, and fights as though her animal instincts had kicked in, but I really know nothing about this, it might just be the mechanics of the game. However, throughout the months I have seen her do it only a few times, and it was always when Kirito, Hajime, me or herself are in a lot of trouble, I feel like she uses it to protect us, but I worry about her, because I don't know what would happen if she was to duel someone, I have **never,** _**ever**_ seen her duel before, and probably for good reason, I think she is afraid to duel, because she has been challenged before.

But for now, today, we are all going to walk around and explore this floor a lot better, seeing as we do not know everything that is here and there might be a better spot to fight monsters than the place we have been using at the moment, oh yeah, and I just remembered, Angel, has not lost the ability to suddenly understand when people speak, it confused all of us when it first happened, but after Kirito and Angel sat down, with me and Hajime sitting and watching everything they talked about, the two are geniuses I swear, I felt so dumb not being able to understand half of what they said, they were talking about the game and how it could modify neurons and stuff like that.

After like 5 hours of the two babbling about various reasons of how, they broke it down for me and Hajime, they said "_Since the game can give you the feeling of presence, it makes it to where you feel like you are actually there. Since Angel hit a button on the Nerve Gear me and Angel think that it sent a special signal, we are not quite sure as to why it happened, but it seems that someone had modified the system to give her the ability to speak, we may find out why later, but we have figured out when as well. The first time Angel could understand speech was when she was knocked out by the boss on floor one, there may have been some sort of program added to the system that allowed all those who are deaf in the real world give them the ability to understand speech, since they would not naturally understand it._"

Even after they broke it down I still could not understand the how, I mean, how does someone all of a sudden get the ability to speak and understand speech? Especially when they are _deaf _in the real world. I guess we will find out soon enough, but I hope that it doesn't have anything to do with Angel specifically, we all need her in our team, I feel like some feel that stronger than others. I wonder, right now, what everyone is thinking about, because the room has remained silent this entire time, and it is right about time to leave. "Everyone, I think it is time for our departure" Angel said, quietly, she ran into a bathroom and changed, this is the first time she has gotten new gear since the start of the game, I guess that her previous outfit was about to dissolve.

When she came out, I was surprised by her new choice of clothing, this time, the clothing was still white, but for some reason it reminded me of Kirito's style of clothing, She was wearing a cloak, it had golden laces that tied together at the waist, but wrapped their way around her so that it looked as though the lace was sort of keeping the cloak in place. Her boots, they had a golden trim on the top of them, and you could barely see the golden trim due to the fact that the cloak had almost completely covered the tops of her boots, the heels of the boots were also golden, along with where her toes are. Under the cloak she had a white shirt, there did not seem to be anything special about it, other than how it seemed to sparkle. Her hair was held up in a Golden Bow this time, it reached to her ankles, while her hair had reached her back. When she turned around I was surprised to see that there was a sword shape on her back, it was a black sword that had words along the sides that read "_The Swordsmen_".

'SO IT IS A GUILD OUTFIT!' I screamed in my head, I wonder if she used all the money she had from training the past few days, since the rest of our money was spent on the house we are currently staying at. "I like the guild outfit!" Hajime said happily, "I think it is great, how did you get it made?" I asked curiously. "I needed new gear, so I decided to get my clothing tailored, and spent everything from training, and also sold a lot of monster drops I did not need." she said, she sounded half proud, half calm. I really hope that I can get one as well, except I have never been a fan of cloaks, but Kirito and Angel seem to have been born to wear them, I could never pull of a look like that, so I am going to go with a cape instead, it sounds weird I know. Usually superheroes like superman wear capes but I am not a hero.

Anyways, "It is time to go guys, we want to get back before sun down" Hajime said happily, you know, I think I have always been the quiet one on the team, and it is mostly because I never want to make a mistake and make my friends hate me, but it seems like everyone else never worries about things like this. I really hope that we all get closer as friends, and in the future we will all be close enough so that I would never have to worry about losing them, except, this game is a game based on death, so losing any of them would be so easy... It terrifies me to think about it, I hope that in the future we will all remain a close team of friends, and this brings up a lot of questions, but I will have to dwell on them later, for everyone else was waiting for me join them at the door leading out of the house.

As I joined them, slowly, everyone started to open a conversation and we all left, the 8th floor is really buzzing because it is the only floor so far that has a tailor, the tailor is a girl that isn't an NPC, but never leaves her home here, she seems to always be open, or at least that is what everyone is saying, I personally have never seen her, I have also heard that she is beautiful, sky blue eyes and brown hair, but I personally don't really care about that stuff, I can not wait till we get enough money to buy guild outfits for everyone other than Angel, who already has one. I doubt Kirito will be up for changing his look though, seeing as he has not taken of his "Cloak of Midnight" since he had received it on the first floor, everything he has, including his sword, he has gotten from drops, it is intriguing to think about how much time it took to get some of the gear.

I suddenly had been zapped to reality when we entered a swamp that we had not seen yet, it was dark and dreary, it gave a horrible feeling, I want to dispel of it as soon as I can. Then, Angel shot back and hit a tree, an arrow was in her arm, and was pinning her preventing her from moving, it gave her a paralysis effect, what just happened?!


	12. Ambushed! Death Markers!

**_-=Chapter 12= The Ambush, A Mark of Death!=-_**

The sound of an arrow whizzed by, and suddenly shot me out of my thoughts, Angel suddenly flew back, and hit a tree, being held in place by an arrow in her arm. The arrow seemed to have given her some sort of a paralysis effect seeing as she could not move, I ran towards her, only to have an arrow shot at me as well, I narrowly dodged the projectile as another one was shot at me, I quickly pulled Angel from the tree, the arrow was ripped from her arm in the process, I quickly ran away from the scene trying to protect her, Kirito, and Hajime, they can handle themselves, and I will be back after Angel's better, it shouldn't take long.

I looked at her, she could not move, it seems like she would even have trouble talking, she was surprisingly light for being such a strong fighter, she and Kirito could probably run the front lines right now if they had wanted to. I drifted through the forest, carefully scraping certain areas so I would know how to get back to my friends, after thinking I had lost them, I had settled down near a cave, and put Angel down, then laid beside her, waiting for the paralysis to cease so that we could join the others in the fight against the mysterious arrows.

It seems as though through everything I was telling her, she seemed to be listening, but fell asleep on the way. I think that the arrows didn't just cause paralysis, but I can't be sure, abilities can cause effects that you can not see. I hope that she gets better soon, I think me talking on the way to this cave was the most talking I had done with anyone in such a long time, but I guess knowing that the one you are talking to can't argue at you makes it a lot easier to talk, I hope that she didn't mind me rambling on, or that I did not bore her to the point that she fell asleep.

**_-=Kirito's Point of View=-_**

'Where the hell are all of these arrows coming from?!' I thought to myself, if one of them hits me or Hajime, we are both dead. Suddenly, several figures started to step out of the forest lining, 'It couldn't be?!' I thought to myself, rumors had started to spread of the formation of a murder guild, named, Death Markers, they would leave a sign that they were there, such as a small article of clothing, or an item that the one who was killed was known for wearing, they are strictly for hire, they get paid to murder people, but why would they be hear, and what would they possibly want with us? A delusional chuckle started to echo throughout the large forest, it made the trees look as though they were shivering.

I quickly shot around, and was 6 inches from the leader of this murder guild, it was a girl, she had black hair, and her eyes, were an ice cold blue, they seemed to pierce through your very souls, and having their gaze on me gave me a very uneasy feeling. "Do you know where the girl and the boy went?" she asked coldly, then pointed to two of the men that surrounded us "You two, our job is to kill that white haired girl, go find her would you?" she said, her orders sent shivers down my spine, she wants to... KILL ANGEL?! There is no way, is this what that death threat was warning us about? That this guild would come after us, or did this person who sent the death threat also plan this, to kill Angel, but WHY?!

The girl suddenly stared back at me "You know, since my job is not to kill you, I may just let you live, but if you do anything to get in our way, both of you will pay your lives" she said, and a small chuckle excaped her lips, this time, it didn't just send a shiver down my spine, but made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, what can we possibly do? We are surrounded, and there is no realistic way to get out of this, but if we don't try, Angel will... NO, we can't let something like that happen, we must try, no matter what.

I turned around, and started to annualize my surroundings, there is a total of seven foes, two are archers, the ones who originally paralyzed Angel before Yuichi saved her, then their was four men who surrounded us, two had their hands on their swords, ready to strike at us at any moment if we made the slightest hesitation to do their bidding, and the other two, who seemed just to be watching everything that was happening, amused, lastly, their was the leader, the girl who's chuckle made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and she just smiled at me, not your average smile, no way, it was an evil grin, I couldn't help but let my teeth chatter at the mere glance at such coldness.

I think I have an idea, if we are able to jump over the footmen, and get to the archers, I could disarm one of them, and take the bow and harrows from them, then use them to paralyze everyone but Hajime, thus allowing us to make a hasty escape, but what about the two men looking for Angel and Yuichi? I suppose that by the time we find them Angel's paralysis effect will be gone, but if all of them are equip with any ability similar to one such as those arrows, we will truly stand no chance. There is truly no chance, for if I can't protect Angel now, then I never had the right to call her my friend, so I have to do this, not only for Angel, but Yuichi too.

I took one deep breath in, starting to concentrate on the archer that was directly in front of me, and quickly pulled out my sword, which the guild members had not been smart enough to disarm me before putting me into a sort of captivity, which will turn out to be their key mistake, however, they will probably learn from this in the future. The two men quickly drew their swords, ready to kill, one charged immediately, and the other one had stalled for a moment, before running toward me, I waited for both of them to be just feet away from me, before jumping as high as I can in this virtual reality, the men collided with one another, which seemed to be what the second one was trying to avoid.

"Hey, they are escaping!" yelled one of the men who was previously being humored by mine and Hajime's presence. The other man, who was witnessing the previous display of power from Kirito, quickly grabbed the knife they had attached to his side, and took it out, then also charged at Kirito, this time, Kirito had cut the swordsmen's arm, and grabbed Hajime and dashed towards the archer that had been his original target in the beginning, Kirito looked at his hot bar for a moment, he had a message, he would have to go and check it later, because right now it doesn't matter, currently his health is still in green, but it seems like the last man had a dagger that gave a slow poison effect, and Kirito had gotten a small cut on his arm.

Kirito and Hajime were suddenly surrounded, and Kirito personally didn't know how, because two were knocked out by running into one another, the other had a painful cut across the arm, and he forgot about the one yelling about their escape, oh no, they were surrounded, Kirito suddenly through Hajime into a tree, to the best of his abilities, because Hajime barely hit the lowest branch, but Kirito felt that if he was to get killed, Hajime shouldn't go down with him. "What kind of stunt was that?" the feminine voice rung out, it was the one he had heard previously, "I told you that I will kill you if you get in our way, yet you still purposely get in our way, why, what is the point in you dying? Is it that you want to die? Are you trying to save your friends? She and that boy are probably already gone, because my men have probably killed them both by now" the men surrounding me had made a small hole in the line, so that the boss of them could get threw.

"You, kill Yuichi and Angel?! That is almost humorous" Hajime's voice echoed throughout the entire forest, his voiced seemed to be booming with anger, he suddenly jumped from the tree, with a single thought seeming to be going through his head "Not Today!" he took out his sword and landed making a huge noise and causing dust to stir all around him, when the dust cleared, Hajime was sitting quietly, sweating, the girl was gone... what happened to her? You don't mean... Suddenly the chat bars of all the men that were surrounding me filled with a message, I barely had time to read it before most of the men exited out of it "_Your leader has died due to the hands of another player, that players name is Hajime, this player that has successfully brought down your leader now has control of this guild, if they refuse leadership, this guild will be disbanded, thank you."_

'Did Hajime, **kill **her?' the thought that came I quickly dicided was the only resolution to what had just happened.

**_-=Hajime's Point of View, Flashback, Three Minutes=-_**

I can't just wait here in this tree Kirito threw me in, I am no frightened cat! Then the words from the boss hit Hajime hard, "I told you that I would kill you, yet you still purposely get in our way, why, what is the point in you dying? Is it that you want to die? Are you trying to save your friends?" the next words she spoke was like a punch right in the gut, "She and that boy are probably already gone, because my men have probably killed them both by now"... 'I may be the weakest on the team, but... but, I can not let her say that she has had my friends slaughtered like it was no big deal!

"You, kill Yuichi and Angel?! That is almost humorous" my voice was louder than I intended it to be, and I jumped down at her, and drew my sword, my intent is to scare her away, if she runs away Kirito and I can go look for Angel and Yuichi, I want to be of use this time, not like all those times before when my friends had to dirty their hands for me, this time, this time will be different! As I hit the ground I felt my sword go through something, I wasn't quite sure of what until some of the fog had cleared around me, and the leader of this murder guild had disappeared... I felt myself lose all of my strength, I killed someone?!

I turned around, and looked at Kirito "Kirito, check my marker thing above my head, is it red?" I muttered, it was then that all of the newly I think leaderless men turned to me, are they mad because I had killed their leader? If so, what are they going to do to me? A life for a life? Suddenly, one of them asked "What do we do now, leader?" erm... What!? I think they were able to tell I was drawing a question mark so one of them went further "The only reason I was ever in a Pk guild was because I was told there is no proof that people who died in game died in real life, so I figured that they would be zapped to reality if so, so there would be no worries, but now that I see you guys, I have realized something. Taking someone else's life and putting it at risk is not something I should be doing, regardless of what happens after their HP hits zero."

I suddenly got a message, _"Someone has left your guild"_ what?! I am in the Swordsmen, no one would have left, then I looked at the username "Kurume184" No one in our guild was named that, there was only four of us, another person started to talk "This kind of stuff happens a lot, the leader dies, if someone killed them the killer gets the guild, usually, the one who killed the leader takes control, but it doesn't look like you were to keen on this guild in the first place, seeing as there are orders to kill your friends being set out by this guild, I am leaving too" A lot of people started murmuring, and I looked at my guild status, Leader of Guild Death Markers, there was three buttons following the message, Disband guild, give leadership, make new guild.

I clicked disband guild, seeing as the message "_Someone has left your guild" _had started to look as though it was being spammed as everyone left, when I clicked it I saw a message pop up asking, "Are you sure?" I said yes and thus the guild was gone, "Okay, now that the guild is gone, will you guys still kill us?" I asked, "No point" said one of the men as a response. We need to look for Angel &amp; Yuichi! If what that girl had said was true, then they could already be dead by now, I suddenly heard a rustling from behind me and zipped around, Yuichi jumped out before passing out on the ground, he had Angel in his arms, and the two men the previous leader had dispatched to kill them was quickly on their tails.

"We need to complete our leaders final wish" I heard one of them say, as the two of them approached us, one had cut mine and Kirito's arms before we could do anything, and suddenly nether of us had the ability to move, I looked at my health bar, Kirito's was in yellow, he had poison and paralysis! I was paralyzed, that man quickly joined the other, and both of them put their knifes against Yuichi and Angel's throats. Suddenly, a figure jumped out of the trees, and ran to the men, within seconds of reaching them, both of the men were dead, "Boy, I hate unfair fights" the figure said.

**Author's Note: Who is this mystery character who saved Yuichi and Angel's lives?! What will the guild do once Yuichi and Angel learns of Hajime murdering someone? Will they kick Hajime out, or do something even more drastic? Find out, Next Chapter.**

_**_-=Chapter 14= Guild's United=-_ Preview**_

_**"What should I do?! I killed someone, how can I tell my friends?" (Hajime's thoughts) "urgh, what happened?!" (Yuichi's thoughts) "What just happened, wait, who is that?" (Angel's Thoughts) "How are we supposed to tell Yuichi and Angel what Hajime did, wait, is THAT?! (Kirito's Thoughts)**_

_**Kirito: Can I tell them who it is at least? **_

_**AnimaniacComin'AtYa: No you will ruin the surprise!**_

_**Yuichi: Yes, the whole point of her ending the chapter where she did was to add suspense as to who it was that saved all of us.**_

_**Angel: I have to agree with Yuichi and _**AnimaniacComin'AtYa**_, I think that we should keep it a secret between us, at least until the next chapter, please...**_

_***Kirito Blushes***_

_**Kirito: Fine, if you guys say so I guess I won't tell anyone that the person that saved us is %&amp;$*(#**_

_**_**AnimaniacComin'AtYa: You are lucky I can block out what you say before I upload it!**_**_

_**_**Kirito: You can? Fine, I can say their name all I want then, %&amp;$*(# %&amp;$*(# %&amp;$*(#**_**** %&amp;$*(#!**_

_**_**_**AnimaniacComin'AtYa**_**_: STOP IT GOSH!**_

_***Angel Grabs Kirito's Hand* Leave Animaniac Alone! *Angel Frowns, then smiles again* Why don't we go to the pond that we went to on floor one?! **_

_***Kirito blushes, an image of her wearing her bathing suit flashing through his thoughts, he gulped nervously* Fine...**_

_***The two leave, leaving Yuichi and _**_**AnimaniacComin'AtYa**_**_ alone***_

_**AnimaniacComin'AtYa: Where did Hajime Go? Well, I guess he will be back by the next chapter, Yuichi, what do you want to do?**_

_***Yuichi points towards a tree***_

_**Yuichi: Can I sit down over there?**_

_**_**_**AnimaniacComin'AtYa**_**_: You don't have to ask to sit down *Giggles* Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, the next chapter will come out tomorrow, baiii, oh, btw, I decided not to have them ambushed by the Laughing Coffins because they will play a role in this fanfiction later, *Smiles an evil grin***_

_**Yuichi: What was that?**_

_**_**_**AnimaniacComin'AtYa**_**_: Oh, it was nothing that involves you *Pats Yuichi's head, then disappears***_


	13. Asuna Makes Her Reappearance!

_**_-=Chapter 13: Asuna Makes A Reappearance=-_**_

The figure turned around and stood looking at us for a moment, I was probably the only one that remembered her, you see, I have kept from everyone else that I actually had talked to Asuna the night before the boss battle VIA messaging, she said that she was thankful for what we had done for her, and later, during the first boss fight, I think I saw Asuna, her cloak with a hood disappeared and it showed her full outfit, she was actually really pretty, which was probably the main reason that she would were a hoodie like that. I have to admit, even I think that she is pretty, and I am a girl, so yeah. I wonder why she wouldn't join our guild though, she seemed a bit hesitant and didn't answer the question when I asked back at floor 1, yet now, she saved our lives, an almost complete stranger.

Not only that, but she also was willing to _Kill_ to protect us. I think that we owe her more than just a simple thank you, I ran over and tapped her shoulder, "Asuna" she looked at me, surprised that I remembered her, but I guess she doesn't know about my photographic memory, which, is turning into a curse, I am going to have to remember everything that just happened today... Not only the ambush, but me getting pinned to a tree, and then Yuichi grabbing me and resting in a cave, I don't think anyone else actually knows the story, but since my memory allows me to pretty much replay the moment, I guess I could go back to it for a moment, I owe Yuichi my life as well, I could not move at all for the longest time.

_**_-=Flashback, beginning of ambush, approximately 1 hour=-_**_

I looked around, I have to make sure that monsters don't sneak up in front of us, because if we got surrounded, we would probably be completely screwed, besides that, I have been having these weird things happening, like, if I dream of a bird, I find a single feather on my bed... it has been creeping me out quite a bit, but I don't think that it will cause any harm, _***Whip***_... what just happened, I looked at my arm where a slight stinging pain was coming from... I can't move though! I strained just to tilt my head enough to see a dagger embedded deep in my arm holding me in place, I for some reason felt the urge to sleep, even though it was paralysis... I suddenly felt someone grab me, for a second I felt an urge to kick the person holding me till I realized it was Yuichi, he was running out of the place with me!

However, why, why did he leave behind our two friends, who threw the blade that is now in my arm, I struggled to look back at my arm, the arrow was gone now, but the pain was till there, it was kind of like a stinging sensation, I thought that things were not supposed to hurt in this game, I guess all those rules were altered come the real launch of the game though, Yuichi glanced at me, a blush was on his face, but I don't know why, well I guess holding a girl in your arms while running would probably ether tire you out or embarrass you, especially since I can't do anything... "Angel, I know Kirito and Hajime can handle themselves, especially Kirito. But we can not risk your life having you there, you can't move at all, so there would be no point in you staying. You could get killed, there was people who was emerging from the bush that the arrow that shot you came from, they were trying to ambush us, and it seems to have been to kill ether you or Kirito. You two are both well known, because Kirito killed the first boss, getting his cloak of midnight, and you, were able to withstand a head on blow that would have killed Diabel. Plus, the odds are that they were after you because of the death threat you received."

"You know, I think that the reason you can now talk and understand language may be the cause of the death threat being sent, but everyone else has that advantage, so in all honesty it doesn't make sense why they would want you or Kirito dead. To the point of hiring a murder guild, based on the amount of people there, and what was banded on all of their wrists, it seems as though they were all aiming on just you. I think they know how strong you and Kirito are so they didn't want to take any risks loosing any men." he kept rambling on but I seemed to have fell asleep at some point and when I woke up, he had set me down in a cave, the inside of it was really mucky, and reminded me of a real life cave, but it just had this little off feeling about it, I think that I should be fine though, Yuichi is here after all.

I kept struggling, I was trying to say something, I still have the paralysis effect, who ever shot that arrow is very skilled, even though the single arrow only took away the tiniest sliver of health, rendering you unable to move and drowsy is a very, very strong ability. That one person alone probably could have killed me, if what Yuichi said was true, then it seemed to be a bit of over kill for a weak girl like me, I am going to have to work stronger, so that I can become strong enough to call myself an ally to everyone here, I don't want to have to depend on everyone, I need to thank Yuichi though, no matter what, even if it kills me, I have to say thank you.

"Y-y-y-yu-yuichi..." I was struggling to say it, he looked at my surprised, probably more surprised I said his name, it was something that I never do, I usually address everyone by their usernames, than he was that I was awake. "T-t-t-tha-thank y-yo-you back th-there" I said, it is much harder talking like this than you could ever imagine, trying to talk while paralyzed... the only analogy I can think of is that right after you get out of the dentists office, and everything is numb from the work he did on your teeth, and the shots he had administered, and so all of the words you say are all slurred and hard to pronounce. That is the only thing I can think of, even though it is around 10 times harder than that to pronounce words and speak. Yuichi looked at me for a moment longer, before looking into the sunlight, he seemed to be actually a bit happy, I looked back at my health bar, looks like through all that rambling my paralysis is gone, but I want to see what Yuichi has to say. "You know, that is the first time I have ever heard you say thank you. You should have saved it for someone who deserved it more than me." I looked at him shocked, he is so modest, I mean, he just saved my life hear.

I bonked him on the head, the texture of his hair was much silkier than I thought it would be, "Baka" was all I said before sitting next to him and looking at the view ahead of us, no one was more worthy than he was... god, he is seriously almost stupid, hence why from now on that will be his nickname, I looked at him, he was smiling... what a fool... I looked at him for a moment longer, after glancing at the meadow ahead of us, I wonder how he found a place like this? When I looked back at him, the smile he had was completely gone, my eyes quickly followed his and looked there, two men were running toward us, I quickly placed a single hand on my blade, before Yuichi placed a hand on his sword as well, as the men got closer one stopped... he pushed of a cloak that he was holding, that was hiding a bunch of throwing daggers, before running at both of us.

The men started trying to hit us while Yuichi quickly mumbled a shaky plan that I quickly agreed to as both of us ran out with our swords drawn ready to fight, the plan? To try and get them to throw their daggers at us, which was successful, we both waited till the men through around 10 daggers in total and started picking them up, I put them in the hoodie of my outfit, which usually remained hidden, because I never used it. Then quickly darted at them, they continued to throw the daggers at us and eventually I ran up and got close enough, then I grabbed a dagger, and waited for my power up to reach full charge and threw it, it barely missed the guy, probably because I was trying to back up Yuichi as well, who was currently picking up the daggers in the back ground.

As I kept attempting to dodge the daggers, and kept running towards one of the men, it kept becoming a closer and closer call, because I wanted to get really close before shooting another dagger at them, this time, when I waited for the power up, it hit one of the man head on, but it seems that it won't work for long because without the boosted ability they have that I don't, the paralysis will only last for a short amount of time. Then I went and used another dagger and ended up trying to pin point an exact spot to hit them, but failed, and the other hit man hit me spot on with one of his remaining daggers, it was then we went on to plan B. Before Yuichi could get close enough, I heard the man mumble something that sent huge chills down my spine. "I will finally get to be more than just a pawn after I kill this girl". Why is my death so important to these guys?

Yuichi suddenly grabbed me and to my surprise with one hand was able to hit the other hit men because of the close range, has he tried something like this before? Anyways, that is besides the point, after that he booked it with me in his arms and headed back to were we were before, or more likely, he was just trying to get away from the dangers that laid here. As he sped me through on the way back, I quickly started to recognize the scenery, it seems that I was only asleep for a short time, or that the time it took for us to get to the place was very short, after the time I had passed out, before I knew it we were almost back to the place that we were at in the beginning.

Suddenly, Yuichi tripped, and both of us broke through the bushes to find us both paralyzed! It seems that maybe Yuichi had a knife launched at him that hit him, because now he was just as helpless to me. The men said something, but before I could try to do anything I had completely froze, it wasn't the paralysis, I suddenly fell myself unable to do anything, this is just like what happened a few months ago, I completely froze and couldn't move for the life of me, what is this, is it some sort of effect? I looked over at Kirito and Hajime, who were now paralyzed along with us, the two men were saying something but suddenly a figure broke the shadows and killed both of them, in one foul swoop! Our hero, was another matter however...

I looked around, and saw the girl that I had saw back at floor one, Asuna, she stood there, I thought that she would be mad at us for being so stupid. She just looked and smiled, "I am glad you are all going to be okay" She said happily, "because Kirito, and Angel, you two better join Front Lines soon" I still had my hand on her shoulder, I finally got the guts to say it "Thank you Asuna, we all owe you our lives" she looked at us for a moment longer before deciding to join us. As we all had set down and began to relax everything that just happened struck me a bit down. I was a bit surprised of everything that happened though.

Asuna had finally come back after all this time, I really did want to get to know more about her. What really has depressed me a bit though is thinking about how, or what happened between Hajime, Kirito, and the murder guild that had them give up on us. I noticed that Hajime hasn't said a single word in a while and it is really bothering me, because he is one of the most talkative people on the team it is really bother some to think about everything that could happen with this. I hope that he can get over what ever he is bothering, because I never want to see that look he has again... He has his eyes hid in his hair, strangely something similar to what Kirito does, but the aura he was admitting creeped me out.

As we talked with Asuna she had started to talk about everything that was going on and what guild she joined etc., as she spoke I was excited to get to know more about her. She said "The guild that I had decided to join is the Blue Moon, our guild is mostly a guild of players who had a higher level than most other players, and it was people motivated to beat the game as quickly as possible. We spend most of our time training to get stronger, but strangely, today I felt something was off and ended up finding you guys surrounded by a murder guild, then I remembered you from floor one." As she talked I got the feeling she was more scared than we were during that fight. Maybe it was just me though... Hehe... Anyways, now then, to the pain I was supposedly feeling when I got shot with an arrow... I know that pain wasn't possible... but it was there. (Remember how Kirito was yelping in pain because he was stabbed in the arm? Then Leg and Chest... Not the point, but the point is you CAN feel pain to a certain extent The reason this story is a bit stretched is in order to establish a bit of what happened and give a slightly deeper bond between Yuichi and Angel)

She continued "I had to sacrifice my green cursor to save you, so I may get kicked out of my guild because of what happened, but there was nothing that could have been done about it. I couldn't let you guys die, all of you are too valuable to just let go, and to think, what would have happened if I had not shown up when I did" I thought about it for a moment, she was right. We would be dead if she hadn't shown up, everyone was pretty much paralyzed. I wanted to ask her to join our guild, but it looked like she was doing well where she was. "That Murder Guild that you disbanded, that was only a small group of newbies, they would have been full blown murderers if they were all trained well. It was good that they disbanded before something worse happened"

This is when Asuna stood up and was getting ready to leave, before saying "I am sorry, but the new guild wants me to get back before it is late, I am already late as is and they probably aren't going to be to happy with me, hopefully I can successfully explain everything that happened." My gut reaction told me to say what I said next, "We will go to help you out, we owe you our lives after all." However, she shrugged off the gesture and bolted it for the trees, I wonder why she didn't want our help... it could be that she lost her trust in us, or that she didn't want to be in our guild, because she is already in one that is probably one of the strongest ones that is currenty available.

It was strange for her to just book it, she must really like that guild to want to stay in it that badly. After all, the place is a place that a girl could join without feeling pressured by the feeling of gazes from many boys, and the fact that she is beautiful wouldn't help the matters ether. I wonder if there is such a thing as an all girls guild. Also, I think that she may be just a tiny bit absent minded like me, but I guess I could just be imagining things. However, I guess we will see her again after all, because it seems that she may have actually left her blade on the ground beside where she was sitting.

_**Author's Note: If you enjoyed reading this, and you would like to see more, I would be deeply honored if you would Follow, Favorite, and or Review my content because I have been releasing it for the enjoyment of all of you guys, thank you to those who have already done so, and I would like to say all of you are appreciated, thank you, baiii.**_


	14. Angel's Facade? Hajime's Revealed

**_-=Chapter**_** 14: Back Stories, and The Guild's Reactions (Angel's Point Of View)**_

'Angel...' the name ringed in my head as I thought of my own name, for some reason, though I have never known why, I hate the way my name rings, it makes me sound perfect, I just wish I could let others see. Over the time I have spent so far in the game, I have realized something that has been hidden away from me for so long, something that I had been unconsciously doing since my father told me that I was destined to be the successor of his company. I took it as possibly the most important words I was ever told *If I say told... people just transferred the knowledge through various methods, just to make it a bit more explained*

When I was little, I grew up a complete failure at everything, no matter what it was, and... every single time I would mess something up my dad would be there to give me that disappointed look... like... the one that you get when you steal a cookie from the cookie jar, or when you don't obey your parents. He was always very strict with me and tried training me to be a perfect girl, but eventually he started to change, and his business ended up taking a huge financial leap forward and ends up having our whole family being surrounded by media, and we were all a craze, but because I was such a boring little girl who was clumsy and always making mistakes, I was constantly humiliated world wide.

I was able to live with it, because of my mother, she was always there, even when my father seemed to hate me, I just hope that I can survive this game, to tell her my thanks, because if I don't... I will have to at least tell everyone on my team before I run the risk of dying. My mother comforted me in any situation, I remember, when I had scrapped my knee, I was crying and ran into the house, my mother ran to me and asked what was wrong with her classic worried look on her face, and she just reminded me of everything that I would want to be, she was sweet, kind, most of the time quiet, she wrote down the words "Are you okay" in such a neat and petite hand writing, I just looked at her, and hugged her. She continued to console me, she is such a perfect mother, and she only shows it around me... It gave me a strange sensation that she would always be there for me.

One day... I just decided, I had enough of everyone pushing me around because I was imperfect, so, I completely dedicated everything I had to becoming a perfect girl for my daddy... no matter what... I had to be perfect, that way he wouldn't hate me anymore, that way he could look at me with proud eyes, that way, I would never... ever have to see that look on his face... ever again. The next two years at elementary school were a living hell, I was still being constantly harassed by all the children that was in my elementary school, and slowly, I started to build a tiny wall around myself, a metaphorical shell that slowly grew as I entered middle school, I buried myself in my studies, and quickly realized my photographic memory, then started skipping grades like mad, suddenly, everyone didn't see me as that clumsy little girl, but as a girl who was smart, kind, reliable. I loved every moment of it...

Though it made me feel horrible for fooling everyone, I did enjoy being loved by the media, and not hated, or humiliated. Eventually I was asked to appear on two TV shows because of my fathers business, and then they found out about my photographic memory, and that turned into a big deal, both shows ended in telling me I do, in fact have a perfect memory, despite the original purpose of the topic going completely out of the window, it was good to know that I was invited onto shows and people had interest in me for other reasons than just laughing at me whenever I did something humiliating. After these two TV appearances everything started to die down in my life, reporters had stopped showing up to our house, and all the embarrassing Guinness world records I had were broken *They were added without my free will, don't ask how*. Everything seemed to be going my way, until...

My father and mother got ill, I was forced to do all of the work of the business, and no matter what I was thinking before, I guess I ignored the memories of then, because my father became sick and my mother, too. Eventually, my father died of the sickness and I drew myself even farther in that shell, never once did my father ever tell me that he was proud of me, until it was almost to late... He told me in letter, the very letter that I still have in my desk... under my computer. Now, the only one that could get me to show my real self was my mother... She is such a kind woman. I need to tell everyone my past, but how? I am almost sure that even though we are close, I just always have this hidden fear that they will all reject me because of my horrible past... I wonder what Asuna is doing right now, we last saw her around four days ago...

I know I probably haven't told my life story very well, but I am trying my best, usually I don't even think like this, let alone actually talk about telling others my feelings... "You know that you have a tendency to think out loud, right?" Kirito said, I was suddenly zapped back to reality... "I never knew..." he said blushing, "That you were faking your personality... I always thought that it was genuine" What does he have to be embarrassed about?! I am the one that was thinking out loud, I noticed myself starting to blush a bright crimson. My eyes started to water as I looked down at my shoes, I never change before I decide to go to sleep, and started to say something, but noticed my self choking up... this has never happened before... "I never thought... It was fake, I just now realized how fake my life was..." I started crying, and without thinking hugged him... 'Eh?! Why am I hugging him' I feel a bit stupid for lying to myself all of this time.

I love Kirito... That is the only way that I am showing my true self around him, because I can only do it around people I love, I must make sure to never let this slip my mouth... I grabbed his cloak tighter, he was blushing even deeper than I was when I looked at his face from the corner of my eyes, he slowly put one arm around me. I think there was something I had forgotten to mention... Despite having a photographic memory occasionally I can be totally absent minded, weird I know. He pulled away and looked at me, he is so close! I am thankful he is willing to hug me, and is not mad about the fake personality...

_**_-= Two Days In The Past =-_**_

_I was looking around everywhere for Kirito, trying to find some sign of the now named Black Swordsmen, because of a duel that happened yesterday the name seems to be more known then before, I eventually gave up looking by the meadow outside the house, which was a place he seemed to like, and stepped into the forest. I was thinking about what would happen if we didn't find him around here when I saw a clearing, it wasn't just a clearing... but a beautiful meadow, with a giant tree that must have been the center piece of the forest standing tall in the middle of the clearing. The meadow was full of flowers, and they ranged from Roses to Lilies, I looked around, until I found what I liked the most of all of them, the prettiest flower of them all, the white Iris. I picked one and stuck it in my hair, it seems as though this is the only place with flowers we have discovered so far, because the meadow at the house only has grass._

_A sudden breeze kicked up and pedals swirled everywhere, the scent from the flowers was almost to much to handle "It is so gorgeous!" I said, and looked around, I picked up a bouquet of iris's and tied them with the bow that I usually kept in my hair. Then I looked at the tree, and there stood a very cute Kirito sleeping at the center, pedals from various pedals laid all over him, it seems that he found this place and fell asleep! How cute! I walked over towards him, he looks even cuter when you can get a close up of him... wait a moment? What is with these internal thoughts?! I looked around for a moment longer, and then looked at Kirito, I have never scene anything more innocent looking than him sleeping like that..._

_I suddenly felt myself getting absorbed in thought... and then one thought swirled though my head, I could kiss him if I wanted to... I wonder if he would wake up... only one way to find out. All of my rational thought flew out the window and before I could prevent myself my lips were against his, it was warm... but I guess... it just didn't seem real, it seemed like a dream... The best dream ever if it is! Angel... I heard a name calling out to me, Angel... ANGEL!_

I woke up to Yuichi yelling down the hall, he was waiting for a response, Man! I wish that wasn't a dream... But why did I have a dream like that? "I am fine!" I suddenly felt something was strange... There is Iris's everywhere?! How did this happen? This has been happening a lot lately! I have been having a dream and something from the dream seems to escape and find it self in reality... or in this case.. virtual reality, if only that kiss was real...

**__-= Back To The Present _**=-_

Will Kirito really be able to accept me for who I am? If he can I think that it will bring us closer...

Hajime suddenly called out for all of us to come to the center room "Everyone, go to the center room" what that meant was that we have a room that leads outside and to all the rooms inside of the house, it is the place where we meet for important meetings and things of that nature, we haven't had one since around the time we moved in, I wonder what happened that would be so important that he would call all of us out of here like this. As me and Kirito ran in, Yuichi was already seated and was calmly waiting for us. Both of us took a seat on a couch and waited for Hajime, who was quietly sitting down himself, but then rose. He seemed to radiate this feeling of uneasiness.

"The guild leader... I killed..." he said, barely loud enough for me to hear. "I killed the guild leader..." He said, I could barely believe the words he was saying, but it seemed as though it had made sense, why else would that murder guild had disbanded, I heard that if a guild leader was beat in a duel for power the leadership would have been passed down but I knew nothing about what could happen if the leader had died... but, HAJIME... Killed someone? Sure he was the weakest on the team but I could never see him killing someone, I could not see anyone kill someone, though, we are probably all bound to in order to keep each other alive, especially if something like yesterday happens again. I want to let Hajime know it is okay, but is it really okay?

I convinced myself for Hajime's sake, but right before I said anything, we all watched Hajime open up his main menu and into his guild selections, is he going to leave the guild?! I prepared myself and almost yelled "Do you think we are going to hate you for something like that?" My tone was harsh but I knew it would be enough for him to stop what he was doing, this is the first time any of them has heard me yell, so all three of them looked at me surprised. "Don't you know, you have been around way to long for us to hate you, we are all a team, and a team without all of it's players is not a team at all!" I thought it would reassure him, and Hajime looked at me for a moment longer, and closed his main menu window and was waiting for someone else to speak.

The next person to speak was Kirito, "I knew that he was a red player for a while, but I thought that it would be best to let Hajime tell us that he had killed someone when he was ready, rather than me tell you. I understood that Hajime didn't want you guys to get hurt, so he thought that it was the only way to make the situation better, I probably would have had to face them alone if Hajime hadn't joined me. That I think, is when all of the newbies felt the same reaction to the death of their leader, except the two that was following Angel and Yuichi. They all found out what it was like to have someone die, even though I don't think these people liked the girl so much." he said quietly, I don't think he was sure we were listening.

Next, Yuichi said something, which doesn't happen very often, but when he does it always is something that makes Hajime comforted, so I felt as though the two would be able to resolve it after Yuichi was done talking, but it was a bit different this time. "You really think that after all we have been through together, that we would all think less of you for doing something that all of us would have done in that situation. Hajime, is that what our friend ship is as strong as to you? If so, our friend ship will be a bit strained, relax Hajime, no one hear hates you for what you did, if anything, I admire you." Everyone's eyes stared at Yuichi surprised at this strange usage of words, he usually is so calm and collected, and barely says a word to anyone... is this really Yuichi talking? I have never heard Yuichi carry such a tone before, but could it be because Hajime and Yuichi some how have a deeper bond with each other than they do with me and Kirito. What could have happened the first few days that they were together that could cause something like this? Do they know each other in real life?

One thing that we have promised each other is to never mention anything about our lives in the real world, more specifically, not to intrude on other peoples personal lives outside of the game, because it would be very rude, not only that but digging up stuff about our real world lives could open up a lot of potential drama, potentially tearing us apart, but the only one who doesn't have that pleasure is me, due to my popularity in the public when I was a child and my father being a big business owner everyone here I think knows about my past, it doesn't scare me though, the fact is that they were willing to see beyond my past and look at the me that I am today. I hope that we can all get even closer as a bunch of friends, and hopefully over time I can get rid of this looming poker face. With the help of all my friends, I am all but hesitant to try, hopefully they will approve of my slow changes I will try to make.

I went to the extent of looking behind Yuichi to make sure that no one was behind him talking, before looking straight at him. He suddenly got all shy... Typical Yuichi, he must have used all the courage he had summed up just now. This time when he spoke it was much quieter. "I admire you because I could probably not have been able to do such a thing to protect all of us in that situation..." I think that Yuichi is having a bit of trouble talking, which is understandable when you concider what he is trying to say, after that an comforting silence fell upon the room, and before it could become awkward I yelled "Group Hug!" and everyone came together, I think that we have all just become closer friends, and it was thanks to strange things Yuichi had told us today...

_**Author's Note: Find out what happens, Next Chapter! Though I decided a cliffhanger was unnessicary for this chapter because a lot happened in such a short time, I hope you enjoyed because I have had a lot of work to rewrite these chapters for you guys because it all seemed as though I did not fix everything the whole point I wrote this chapter was to explain what happened to Yuichi and Angel while they were out of the picture in the last chapter, and it give a better bond for the two people.**_


	15. Kirito's Thinking

_**_-= Chapter 15: Kirito's Thinking =-_ (Based Two Days Before The Last Chapter, at night) (Kirito is thinking about everything that is going on in the game including Angel and Why would Kayaba want to kill people to get control)**_

I have noticed that I seem to be getting more and more flustered around Angel, and come to think of it, I think that there is only one possible reason for something like that to happen. I think I may have fallen for Angel, I think I have for quit a while actually, I have always been flustered around Angel but when she told me she cared about me, which is something I will always remember, I felt as though my heart would stop. I think that she doesn't think the same way about me but it is all right as long as Hajime or Yuichi doesn't try anything with her, which I think they are smart enough not to.

Despite that, I think that if she was to see everything that would be going through my head she would probably hate me, that is why I want to never tell her how I really feel about her, but maybe I could show her in some way, it would definitely be easier than saying it out loud, you know, if Angel hadn't have gotten the ability to listen and understand language I could just MESSAGE her it, but of course, Akihiko had to update the system to make all deaf players able to understand language, now that I think about it though, hearing her sweet voice is a real pleasure. If there was one thing I wish she would do, it would probably be to sing... Not to be weird, but I do wonder what a quiet voice like that would sound like when singing, even though I have never been a music fan.

I felt myself starting to drift in an out of consciousness until I fell asleep, which was in the house, obviously, there wouldn't be anywhere else that I could possibly be and be safe to rest at. My friends are outside close by so I should be fine, I am really tired from yesterday and yeah. I quickly drifted to sleep and felt myself almost feel as though I was warped back to reality. Everything seems so real in dreams, and then you wake up to find yourself back where you were when you fell asleep. In this dream I was in a really dark alley way. I don't know why but the fact of where I am seemed to make me very uneasy, even though I know that this was a dream, it just crept me out a bit.

The only thing that seemed clear to me was how cold everything seemed, the whole atmosphere seemed as though it was trying to keep me away, as though there was something it didn't want me around for, I felt a picture of Angel zip past me as I thought about her, various memories appeared, and it was as though I was back in time, I was remembering the time we went to the beach, I remembered the first boss battle. What Angel didn't know back then was how worried I was that something really bad would happen to her, or that she wouldn't wake up. It terrified me to the point that I wanted to stay by her side till the end, that is probably when I fell in love with her, or when I first thought about it.

Then I thought about the first day we had met, and how she fell asleep in the meadow and how peaceful she looked while she was sleeping. Her hair slightly had covered her face, the white hair was sparkling from the sun beating down on it and made her look almost perfect, except the fact that she had an adorable tiny snore that she probably has never heard before because of her being deaf, but it is so quiet you have to listen carefully to hear it, I learned of it after we all bought a house together, Yuichi, Hajime, Angel and me. I have never had friends like these guys before, but I wonder will they still be my friends if we all make it out of the game alive?

Next, I thought about a memory that only I shared, because Angel was sleeping, again. I was watching her as she fell asleep while leaning on a tree, I had to make a promise to watch her before she was comfortable to trying to take a nap outside, but I still convinced her to do it. As I watched her I realized how gentle she really looks, she looks like the person that you would want to hug, and reminds me of a teddy bear. It was probably this face that had brought the name Angel onto her, and not because of how she looks, she could have black hairs and black eyes and would still look as much like an Angel as she does now.

I was suddenly zapped awake when I started to have a nightmare, because the nightmare was about Angel dying... This brought a lot of new thoughts to my head, how many times Angel has been close to death. It has happened 3 or 4 times, and because I didn't go and find her, without Hajime and Yuichi, she wouldn't even be here to be on our team today. Then there was the first boss fight, when she took Diabel's place in the battle to make sure that he didn't die. I think that it was probably the bravest thing I have seen anyone do in this game up to this very day. Then there was the time where she was almost murdered by the Death Markers. When Hajime had to kill the leader, she still doesn't know what happened to that girl. I guess she could, but unless Hajime told or Angel and Yuichi looked at his cursor, they would never get to know, I found out for sure when he told me to look at his cursor, though he never asked for an answer.

I feel as though everyone on my team is so valuable to me that if they were to all die I would probably find a way to die myself, I wonder how such a deep bond could form via a video game that has gone mad, I thought that there was a good side to this video game, but it was only during the beta test, everything felt darker as soon as Kayaba had initiated the launch of the game, I am just left wondering why. I still don't believe that Kayaba would just monitor everything though, he has to be some sort of player, or else he would be stuck watching what happens to everyone, so who is he playing as?

The most probable answer is that he is or will become some sort of guild leader, because someone like Kayaba who is obviously looking for control could find a lot of it in a large guild, he could not only have control but power as well, who knows, he could be in charge of a murder guild and we would never know, I read about the guy but I never found out about his personality or anything on the sorts, all I got was an idea of him when he had launched the game. When he was talking about the game ,he almost sounded proud of himself for what he had done. There was no point to this game, why would he ever want to be proud of it? Already so many people have died from this game, it is absolutely horrible.

No matter what, I have to beat this game, some how. Not only for my friends but for everyone that has died and will die by the fault of this horrible game, the sad thing is that it is actually a fair game, it has it's rules and never goes outside of them. If your HP reaches zero, your dead, if you are in a safe zone, you can't be attacked and murdered without a duel. It all makes sense, I just don't understand why he had to lock everyone up in this, he still could have had control in this world if he had just left it be and let people leave and come back at their own free will, but now that Kayaba has started this game, once it is over he won't have his control anymore, thus, making his point make no sense.

In the end he is just a murderer, so, hopefully he won't get away with him, I know that I will never forgive him if any of my friends died, and so many family's heart broken, they would probably pay to see him in an electric chair.

_**_-= Back to the Present of the previous Chapter=-_**_

I hugged slowly hugged Angel back, I was blushing furiously and felt like my whole body was red, I looked back at her for a moment, and saw that she was blushing to and it gave me a small amount of relief. A short while after we broke apart from the hug I went to my room to try and cool off a bit, I opened a window in the room, and a breeze swept in happily, I noticed that flower pedals were blowing into my room, but it was way to small of a detail to care about, so I simply shrugged it off, the flower pedals will disappear eventually. Although, I really did enjoy the scent that came with the flower pedals, it has to be one of the most realistic scents in this game.

The smell was of various flowers all coming together and forming a fantastic aroma, it made me want to go and pick flowers, which was strange, but just for the scent of them. I never noticed how flowers smelled and other small details like that, but now that I am here, every little detail seems so much more noticeable that if you can't notice it how can you really be alive. This kind of atmosphere allowed me to relax, even after something like what just happened with Angel had just happened. I hope that when I get back to real life the flowers will still smell like the flowers smell like here. I wonder if Angel and Hajime and Yuichi were all able to smell the flowers too. Part of me wanted to tell them about the strange occurrence and the other part of me wanted to stay here and keep smelling them. Eventually I decided to go and lay down for a while, and try thinking a little bit more. Though I knew it would be hard because I am a little exhausted.

What I originally started thinking about was the guild, for some reason, Angel refuses to fight other players, or to battle during boss fights, instead, she wants to make sure that no one else dies, I feel like that isn't the only reason for her refusing to battle during such situations. There has to be something else that is making Angel think this way. Another thing, I wonder how Hajime is dealing with what he had done to that group's guild leaders death, because he was the one who had killed her, even I feel a bit guilty for her death and I have nothing to do with it! To think though, that girl, is now completely done, gone out of this world, no more... to think that it happened to someone who only a few days ago was alive and well, the only thing that settles my nerves is how many lives we saved by killing her, and ending her life now... Hopefully it will help prevent future deaths, though there will definitely be a new Murder Guild that will form itself soon.

I suddenly felt a bit drowsy, I guess what happened today must have made me a bit tired, from all of this thinking about Angel and Kayaba, geez, I really haven't been acting like myself lately... I must seem so stupid to anyone who can't tell what I am thinking seeing me looking down all the time so that Angel can't see that I am blushing whenever I am around her. Hajime and Yuichi have already said that we would make a good couple, but Angel would always punch them in the shoulders whenever they did and call them stupid, well, stupid fools. I felt myself fall asleep and began thinking about my memories with Angel again, before starting to think of a new memory that could happen in the future.

It was me and Angel in the real world going on a date, Angel was gripping on my arm as though her life depended on it and gave me one of her soft smiles as we looked around at the park and relaxed and everything that I could think about started to melt away, as I just watched my dream go by, Angel was smiling and occasionally looking at me. Whatever anyone does, don't wake me up because I want to see where this dream goes. As I watched Angel, she suddenly told me that she had to go back to her home, said my name, then kissed me! I suddenly jolted awake. I felt something on my lap, it was three Iris's wrapped in a bow, the bow Angel keeps in her hair, if it was a dream why do I feel like we just kissed? And where did these things come from?

_**Leaving a dazed and confused Kirito we must leave him to enter into Chapter 15, what could possibly be in store for our hero as he and Angel and his friends must go through more trials of their friendship and... new found love? We will have to see! Wait for chapter 15 to see what will happen next! Thanks for reading, Follow, Favorite, and Review if you enjoyed! Yeah, and ohhhh so poor Kirito being so confused about his feelings, let us cheer him on from the shadows of the deep and dark realms *Smiles Evilly* Let us see how their relationship develops in the future shall we?**_


	16. A Date?

**_Author's note: Sorry, but this is going to be a rather long story, so please hang with me, and after, you guys can read a really mushy chapter where Kirito and Angel finally get some bonding time... ALONE... Now, to the important topic I must talk to you guys about, my EXTREMELY PROLONGED ABSENSE. I am so sorry for all this time I have been spending not uploading anything at all for giving a reason, the reasons are as following: My grandmother died, My grandfather suffered a fall, School Started, School clubs, Marching band, and Student Council have all been dominating my time and energy so I have had little to no time to edit and write this story for you guys, but don't worry... THIS STORY IS NOT DEAD :,I I am sorry to all those who thought that this story is over.. BUT THE TRUE PLOT HAS ONLY JUST BEGUN... :D So stick around to find out all of the juicy secrets about Hajime and Yuichi's twisted pasts, and some other huge plots that you will get to know of soon enough, that give some explanations to the minuet details some pointed out as strange... you will see soon enough._**

**__-=Chapter 16: A date?=-__**

The days have passed by relatively quickly in Sword Art Online, every day seems to start to slur together, because before I even knew it, it is the sixth month since the death game has started, the thought haunts me, and it keeps me thinking that the only thing that keeps me alive is my friends. Who are in the guild that was formed by Hajime and Yuichi from the beginning. I am actually really happy I met them all, and together, I hope that we will be able to beat this game. Today, we are all supposed to go through out the new town that we discovered on the outskirts of floor 24, but for some reason Hajime and Yuichi decided that it would be best for just Kirito and I to talk everything over.

I think that today is going to be an extra special occasion because me and Kirito in all this time haven't spent a lot of time alone together, it has almost always been us four, not just us two. However, I have to admit that it is intimidating knowing that I am going to be alone with someone that I think I like... like. I hope everything goes well though, and in the end, I am glad that there hasn't been any other girl that he has gotten this close with, I just still have no idea about his real world attachments... Which is something that always bothers me. Though I have always kept that feeling hidden from the surface, I hope that no one will realize it.

Deciding on what to wear today, though I don't have much clothing because it all needs to be tailored by the few equipment makers who are willing to try and make fabrics, I did choose something that I really liked. This outfit is a light grey dress, the dress itself is quite plain, with only a ribbon across the waist that forms a huge bow in the back, and near the bottom of the dress there is a rose embroidery that has been added, personally I have always loved this dress because of the roses, which are black, I think they go with the dress quite well. As for anything else, I have a small sword that I usually keep in my inventory attached to the ribbon. It's sheath is covered in white laces that travel delicately down the blade, and though they seem fragile, are strong enough not to be cut by the blade and vanish, their durability is very high. As my eyes travel down the blade, the quality of it becomes clear, it's clean cut edge with two colors that shine brightly across it, is black and silver, though I have little clue about the crafting of swords, I could tell this one was unique just by looking at it, and bought it first chance I had, having to spend everything I had on me for it, I rarely use it for fear of it breaking.

Taking the sword I gently put it on the bed and throw off the equipment I am wearing, and put it away, then throw on the dress and reattach the sword to my ribbon on the dress. I look at myself, and then shake my head disapprovingly, I get the strong feeling that something is missing for the occasion, then it suddenly popped into my head, that the light grey cloak I had would go well with this outfit, and I quickly got it out and slid it on then went outside my room of the guild house and looked for Kirito. "Kirito?" My voice yelled through the town, after five additional minutes of searching I find Kirito, asleep, under a tree. I gently shake him awake "Kirito, have you forgotten our meeting. Yuichi and Hajime backed out, so it is just you and me talking today." I felt a small lump form in my throat as I spoke.

_-=_Kirito's Point of View=-__

I felt a blush slowly creep on my face but quickly pushed it away, trying my best to prevent it from showing at the thought that she might find me sick if I were to blush, even though she knows people don't get sick in this game, she still sometimes mistakes this game for the real world, and it is embarrassing when she touches my head. "What was their excuse?" I said, quietly, I was glad I didn't have to hide my face this time because my blush had finally settled down and was at a minimal. "No reason" she said calmly, I felt another wave of thoughts slowly brush through me. "They probably thought there was something that we two needed to discuss on our own, exactly what I am not sure, I hope they give us a good excuse later."

Suddenly I feel an arm around me and this time the blush was impossible to hide, "Kirito, can we discuss this now?" I gulped once, and shyly started walking, how can she be so calm when she has her arm around mine, 'Does she not share the same feelings? Is she just being friendly?' these thoughts kept filling my mind and was all I could focus on, well that and her arm, until she finally said something to break my uneasy thoughts. "It is kind of nice though isn't it?" she said quietly. I cleared my throat before speaking. "What is?" was all I could muster out, "Well, isn't it nice for us to have the ability to talk alone? It seems like it has always been us four, this is the first time we have really been alone" this time the blush felt as though it was creeping everywhere, even outside my face and down my arms, I gulped again, almost to nervous to say anything.

I just now noticed that she had dressed up especially for the occasion and it made me actually a bit happy, but though it is something I appreciate, something had also deeply effected me, something was missing... HER BOW! The bow she always kept in her hair isn't there, why is that, when she got so mad at me for messing it up that day that seemed like forever ago, I have to ask "Where is your bow?" I blurted out... I felt my face turn red and turned away from her quickly, her answer made me blush even more, "Well, I don't really need it anymore because I have you..." She paused for a brief moment, before continuing "The rest of the guild to!" She seemed almost happy when she was finished with her statement and grasped my arm a little tighter.

I just now realized what we are really here for, and I think it is important to talk to her about it. "Angel?" I said, calmly, "Yes, Kirito?" she said, keeping a straight face, "It seems like your attitude towards everyone has changed a lot since we all first met you huh? I was just wondering if you really had changed, or if you just had gotten to know us better. I also get that you couldn't speak with us in the beginning, thus it would make it harder for you to show your true colors, but that doesn't change the question." I said, this time a knot not only formed in my throat, but I felt like there was a hint of wanting to know the answer in the way I spoke to her, which was not what I wanted to have in my voice, but I think it was uncontrollable.

_** _-=Angel's Point of View=-_ **_

I looked at Kirito nervously, 'Did he really figure out that so easily? I understand that I have changed, and it was because I have been trying to remove this fake poker face, but, how did Kirito realize that so easily, when everyone else hadn't... Then again, I have changed the most around him. I let go of his arm debating how to answer and eventually, I decided that it would be best to tell him the truth, right before I did I felt a rock under me and tripped, and he quickly helped me up, then eagerly looked at me and I knew I couldn't hold back the truth anymore. I still don't understand how exactly he was so analytical, but I guess it is obvious if you look at me before and you look at me now,"Kirito, when I first met all of you, it wasn't just the fact that I had to use the message board to talk to everyone, it was everything about my life." the knot started coming back in my throat, but I knew I had to work through it, "Before I met all of you, before I bought this game, years before then, I was known world wide as a clumsy child, I was picked on a lot, and eventually I lost sight of who I wanted to be, so I decided that I would stop all of this pain. I changed myself and became a boring child, who's manners, memory, and everything was perfect, except the one thing that I never wanted to cure, I have never hidden my deafness in the real world, only know have I figured that out. The one thing I have stayed true to, with you guys, I slowly warmed up to you and realized that I have changed the way I am and I became the person that I used to be."

He looked at me shocked and then I reclaimed his arm and we talked more about previously talked about subjects, such as the strange dreams that I have, which Kirito figured out quite well if I do say so myself, but it was because he walked in on me trying to remove a dove that came alive from my dream.. that made me explain it to him, but I am okay with that. Anyways, that subject and the subject about how exactly I suddenly learned to talk had came up many times during the conversation, but eventually our topic got to the murder guild, and the deeper topic that I find sensitive, though it is an old wound and most likely will yield nothing, considering nothing has happened that has been directly linked, the death note sent by Heathcliff is still bothering me to this day, along with Kirito a little, but I don't think he understands how bad it really fells to be in such a situation.

At the end of us looking through this town we discovered, which we actually discovered with a bunch of other people in front lines, we started heading back, on the way back both of us were silent, and when we got close to the house I noticed I still had his arm and I let go, then when we finally got there I went sleepily to my room. Despite what you might think I think that sleep is just as important in the game as in the real world, because I am exhausted from today, I quickly slipped under the white cover of my blanket as the warmth of the blanket reached me, I quickly felt myself drift to sleep as I thought about everything that had gone on today.

_**_-=Author's note: I hope you enjoyed this mushy chapter, I am really sorry I have been gone and hope that you guys will all understand why I was gone, Next chapter will reveal a bit more into the plot... hope you guys enjoyed and please show your support by Reviewing, Favoriting, and Following my fanfiction, I am sorry that it has been so long since I have uploaded anything, please forgive me? :,(**_


	17. Prepping for Tepholis Daten-shi!

_**Author's Note: This chapter is something that I decided would be interesting, such as a new weapon being added into Sword Art Online, and this chapter is very important because there is a bit of character development in it, so please, read the entire thing :D, because some of this will most likely be important in later chapters!**_

_**_-=Chapter 17: Prepping for Daten-shi Tepholis=-_ (Angel's Point of View) -Day: Thursday-**_

Everyone around the guild table is eating silently, though it is supposed to be a guild meeting about the new floor boss that was just recently discovered. The story about the discovery was a bit suspicious though, a group of scouts from another guild, called Kotbo for short, or well, is what our guild calls them, went looking for the boss. Every single one of the scouts entered except for the leader, who was letting everyone in, right before he was to step in to join his fellow comrades, the door was slammed shut with him only getting a glimpse of the boss. When he returned, he was to terrified by what he saw to speak, and so he was sent to the guilds finest courters to recuperate from the trying experience.

Only recently has he recuperated enough to provide an explanation as to what the beast was that terrified him so. The beast, named Daten-shi Tepholis, the boss stood at a shocking twenty feet tall, if not, taller. The face of the creature, from what he described, looked as though it was created from hardened clay, it had wrinkles that spread across it making it look ugly and old, the hair that grew from the beast was shabby, and was more like fur. As your gaze would travel down the base of the monster, you could see that it had the lower body of a horse. It's mundane amount of hair made it look more like a bald cat though, and the sword it carries looks the quality of it's 'fur'. However, something that really scared him was what was placed on the back of this boss, he saw only a glimpse of it, but he glimpsed black wings that had a wing span of at least fifty feet. According to his account, none of the soldiers came out when the door was reopened and that was why he was so terrified of everything that happened.

I feel like it is about time for the discussion to actually start, secretly I am hoping that talking about our worries will help put some of them aside, but you can never really be sure until you actually talk about them. "Guys, I believe it is time to discuss the matter at hand" I said, semi scared, and a bit shy to seeing as the nature of what we are here to discuss today is so serious, I just hope they won't mind me suddenly budding in. I realized I was thinking strangely again and shook my head, then turned to Kirito who looked like he was about to speak, "Discussing what happened to that player," he put his hand on his chin and then continued, "I think that we should all be careful when we decide to take on this boss with everyone else next week.

Everyone at the table felt as though this information was obvious, but I knew that at least I felt that it was important to say it regardless of the probability of the situation, as he started to talk again, for a split second I noticed that he had a worried expression on his face, but he quickly 'shook' it away. "This boss may be the hardest one we have ever faced, however, we do have the advantage of knowing what kind of weapon it has and also we know that it has an ability that will be hard to beat, the ability to fly. Though we can't be sure if that is true or not, I think it would be wise to have someone cover having a long range weapon in order to attack at it if it decides to fly. The only one who knows how to operate any kind of weapon that could cover a long range shot is Angel." he looked at me and thought about it for a moment.

What he said is true, however, the only reason I got a long range weapon in the first place is because of one of those strange 'dreams', I was dreaming of being an elf, from that old book called Eragon , and the dream abruptly ended when I was shotting an arrow at a monster from long range, when I woke up. The strange thing was that a bow and quiver full of arrows was laying on my bed side when I woke up. I tried keeping it from the guild members for a while until they eventually found the strange entities and asked about it, and well, that was another way they found out about what happened when it came to those strange dreams that were always happening. That is what he was talking about though when he mentioned a long range weapon, not only is it a long range weapon, but it has a strange ability called Wielder's Strife, it increases the power in the bow the longer you use it, however, if you are not calm when you shoot an arrow you will miss completely.

"Angel, I think you should get out the bow so that everyone can see it again. We want to make sure that it won't break during the guild battle, you got that thing a while ago, and you have used it a lot so it could be close to breaking at any time." I quickly ran and got the bow, it was silver in color, the entire thing was smooth and felt like polished ivory, something I only touched once at a very young age when my mother had an ivory vase, a vase that I ended up breaking. At the top edge of the bow was two wings and the bottom one edge was sharpened to a point, Maybe to double up as a curved spear but I truly have no clue. I was surprised that he knew I practiced on the bow a lot, because it was something that I only liked to do when it was late at night.

Hajime looked shocked to see a bow in Sword Art Online, to be honest when I first 'received' it I was a bit shocked too, however, this was the thing that made me decide I would be a healer and a fighter. That was one reason and another reason was that it was that I realized I was pretty useless when I never fought, and I noticed that despite my efforts that some players are still dying during battle, the fact that I call myself a healer makes me feel guilt whenever I see someone whom I failed to do my job for, and then also knowing that most likely they are gone in the real world... I feel myself shutter and look up to see everyone staring at me, then I blush when I glance at Kirito and our eyes meet. I quickly sat down because despite being with these people for so long I still have trouble whenever all attention is focused on me.

**_FlashForward: -Night of Day: Friday- (Angel's Point of View)_**

The rest of that meeting really we discussed unimportant things and all our weapons and armor was restored. Watching my bow get restored reminded me of the first time I tried cooking, because he is not used to repairing bows, and is used to other kinds of weapons, it was funny watching him toy with it till he finished repairing it. Finally, at the end, Kirito revealed to us that the planned time to attack the boss for all the guilds is 15:00 next week, Wednesday, today is Friday. It seems as though the date for this battle is creeping nearer and nearer.

Kirito made his way up to the roof, where I currently am, I felt myself blush upon seeing him, which for some reason this time agitated me because I was trying to think about something else and him coming up here made my mind go blank. He sat beside me and watched me for a while, before quietly saying "Make sure that you don't go near the boss, we need you for your bow, if you were to get hurt no one here could take your place." I glanced at him, he was doing what he always does when he is alone with me, he hides his eyes. I still am not sure if I hate it or find it adorable when he does that, but it doesn't matter.

"Kirito, why do you think no one could replace me? I mean, it wouldn't be that hard to get someone else to pick up that bow and wield it" I blurted out loud, then quieted down before saying anything else, partially out of embarrassment and partially out of wanting to hear how he would respond. He looked at me, and shook his head "The bow isn't the entire reason why, there isn't anyone else like you here" I got the feeling he was out of character recently, so I asked "Are you okay" when he responded, even though he said yes, I went over and felt his head. Even though part of me knew that you couldn't get fevers in a game, I still got the urge to make sure he was alright, because usually he doesn't say things like that to anyone, after I checked and knew he was not sick. The roof fell silent. I laid down for a moment and fell asleep with him right there.

_**FlashForward: -Night of Day: Monday- (Yuichi's Point of View)**_

It seems that around the house everyone has been getting more and more tense, though I can't say I am not guilty of that as well. I think it is mostly because we all know that Wednesday there is going to be that boss fight with the boss that has caused a lot more commotion then usually they do, most likely because the person who was scared ,was recently discovered to be one of the strongest fighters in the game, and even he was terrified of the beast. Not that I really mind, I don't care how terrifying that thing is as long as it doesn't hurt any of my friends. Because I seem to be the 'quietest one' of the group, and few know of my actual stats... which are that I am actually currently level with Angel, though she doesn't know that.

Also, I have noticed that the relationship against Angel and Kirito has been getting slightly closer. Though they might not realize it themselves, they are starting to spend more time together, and seem to slowly start understanding one another more, of course, I don't know for sure, but it seems like it. I also noticed that right after dinner the past few weeks Angel has been going up onto the roof to think, and Kirito has recently started going up there too around an hour after Angel comes up to there. I am kind of betting that they didn't think anyone else would actually realize this, and the only reason I did is because Angel is the one that cooks, and she leaves right after everyone is done eating, then doesn't come back till the morning. How I noticed Kirito is that I looked for him a few nights ago and saw him up on the roof he kept glancing at Angel, who seemed to be asleep at the time. Anyways, I am not going to go into any further detail on that.

There has been another thing that has recently been going on that I am almost sure no one other than I knows about, that is gossip surrounding our guild. You see, there is players who devote their time writing things for other players, who can buy them for cheap prices and these things tend to give information about recent events that have been happening, for some reason, a player has completely devoted themselves to trying to figure out our guild, and they seem to be moreover focusing on Angel and Kirito. I still have not figured out this persons identity, because they are an anonymous poster who really uses their pet to hand out free copies of what they think. This person is a tamer, someone I hope to become, and they tamed a small dragon that flies around trying to give them away, however, it was trained to avoid four people, the four of us. Though eventually I got one by asking another player, and that is how I found out about them. As long as people don't start avoiding us I don't really care about this gossiper though.

_**Flashforward: -Night of Day: Tuesday- (Angel's Point of View)**_

I felt myself start to cry as I thought about the possibilities of what might happen tomorrow, and I couldn't keep myself from doing it. I heard someone climb onto the roof, but at this point I couldn't really stop myself, so I kept crying. When I looked up and saw it was Kirito though I felt ashamed that he had seen me in such a state. For a moment he looked at me, and I quickly looked down, then suddenly felt two arms go around me. His warmth at first shocked me, but after a moment I felt a huge wave of relief having him there, and noticed that I had slowly stopped crying. When I stopped, I realized that this entire time he had been gently petting my head, and that he had starting crying as well.

When I quietly asked why, he told me he was afraid... it was the first time I had ever heard or felt weakness within Kirito and it surprised me, more than it would if anyone else had done it. Yet, despite him crying, I felt a small amount of comfort, because I felt as though I was one of the first people to see him in such a venerable state, this emotion made me feel a bit of guilt, but it is not like it wasn't there. When I went to let him go, he pulled his arms tighter around me, and then, after a few more minutes he gradually stopped crying to, then let go. I looked up at him, mixed emotions of both Sympathy and understanding, and when he looked at me, he stared for a moment, before looking away, and I did the same. I suddenly got the feeling that what had just happened should probably stay a secret, and so I promised myself to tell no one.

I suddenly felt a wave of exhaustion go through me from the wave of emotions I had just endured, and felt myself put my head against his shoulder and quickly fall asleep. This night, I had no dream, but rather, I pondered about the feeling of having his arms around me, and this thought I just couldn't get out of my head. The colors of a light pink and tan kept swaying around, it was one of the strangest dreams I have ever had.

When I woke up I looked to see that Kirito had also fallen asleep, the fact we were still against each other surprised me, but when I looked around, and saw that Yuichi was watching us, I suddenly felt extremely embarrassed and woke up Kirito, who quietly looked at me, then blushed and moved away, probably because my face was three inches away from his at best. Yuichi quickly called "Come on love birds, I made breakfast". Me and Kirito shuddered at the thought of eating someone else's cooking other than my own, because the last time we had someone else's cooking it was Hajime's and everyone almost threw up, despite this being a game, I swear, it is still possible.

So, we both jumped down, and hit the ground, rather hard, and joined the others for the second meal we have all eaten together that wasn't of my own cooking, and thought it may seem impossible, surprisingly, it was worse than Hajime's.

_**Author's Note: Thank you all for reading this chapter, sorry again, it took me a while to write this because I didn't know exactly how to approach this chapter at first, hopefully it turned out pretty good and you guys enjoyed it, next chapter the real boss fight begins! Oh, and did you guys think that anything seemed a bit rushed here? I was wondering because I am writing a bit differently from usual, and the mushy scene the night before the boss fight may have been a bit to much, but I don't know, so guys please tell me. Review, Follow, and Favorite if you guys either enjoyed this or have good ideas on how to improve it! Thank you, have a nice day :D**_


	18. The Might of Tepholis Revealed!

_**Author's Note: Hey guys, as always, I have had the ultimate brain farts when writing and I kinda forgot to update so that is why it has taken so long to update. Oh, and guys, I am debating wether or not to delete all these author's notes once I have finished my story so If you don't see them after I am finished writing that is why! :D Also, I promise that no matter how long this takes that I WILL NOT drop this story, I will finish it beginning to end no matter the cost. Btw: Sorry if I have changed my writing style a bit, I noticed my writing can be easily influenced by what Anime or Manga I am currently running through. Concidering that I have been watching a lot of Code Geass and Baccano! it could change how I write. Hopefully it won't though, so enjoy :D**_

_**_-=Chapter 18: The Might of Tepholis Revealed! (Angel's POV)=-_**_

Today has thus far been quite hectic with all the talk about how the meeting is going to be today to defeat this boss. I have to admit though, I am really nervous about having to go and use my bow out in public, one of the main reasons being that I will be the only one to have one most likely. Hopefully, we will be able to take down this boss, without any deaths, but with what that guy a while ago said, it doesn't seem that way. Then again, last night before everyone went to bed I told them my first priority was preventing deaths so hopefully I can do my job well. According to this 'newsletter' I get messaged to me every week, people have started to pick up on what I do after seeing how many deaths it can prevent. Honestly though, I really don't want all that attention for something that I do.

__-= FlashForward: At the Meeting Setting: Outside Boss Room=-__

Unlike other times though, where everyone was dead quiet, today it was quite the opposite. Everyone has been chattering about the boss because unlike most times before we have basic ideals on it's abilities and things like that. I am hoping that after this speech from the King of the Blood Oaths' leader we can all get on with this. In case there might be some wondering as to why this specific leader is giving the speech, it is because they are actually the founders of the front lines, and are also responsible for deciding who can join them and who can't. At first I thought it would be like a monarchy, however I grew to like the front lines, it was full of good people and a lot of the people there are really good at making jokes out of our battles.

Because through all of this uneasiness from the battle that awaits ahead and , I am kind of excited to see this beast for myself. Not only to see if all of the rumors are true, but also to see how Kirito, Yuichi, and Hajime will be able to handle it, and then there is the possibility of a new person we haven't seen taking it down. However, looking at the determination on Kirito's face when he found out that he and the others would be in the very front of the attack, I doubt anyone would be able to take that kill from him. Before I could finish my thoughts, Kirito tapped my arm to point out that the speech is now beginning, my cheeks flushed from the embarrassment of suddenly blanking out like I just did.

"Hello, fellow SAO warriors!" the speaker called, I felt a hint of annoyance in his tone, the way he spoke was reminding me of something, "I am Heathcliff, leader of the Knights of The..." I didn't quite catch the rest, because I was to shocked by the name of the man to actually remember anything else... where have I heard it before... THE MESSAGE! I shot up, before realizing it, and stared down at him. Feeling everyones glares intimidated me, despite what they are probably thinking of me right now, I am petrified by all the glares. Kirito looks at Heathcliff, he seems to remember too, which makes me kind of glad that I am not the only one who knows of the situation. Yuichi seems to remember to, but Hajime is just acting like an idiot, and he was clapping to Heathcliff's every word before I stood up.

Heathcliff stopped talking, surprised by me suddenly standing up, I have to admit that this action was really entirely against what I wanted to do, which was to just discuss with him quietly "..." the room suddenly fell quiet, and I quickly cracked under the pressure and sat down, looking at Healthcliff for a moment longer, who flashed a smile upon seeing me move down. He then continued his speech but frankly, I sort of shut out his words out of fear of him saying something about me that would or could embarrass me any further. This is the first time that I have actually tried to forget something or ignore something since I was little, but I tried it today, because this guy is someone that I really... Don't want to remember... AT ALL. Why did I have to figure out this guys identity this way?! Why did he have to be one of the most powerful guild leaders in Sao?!

As soon as he finished I sprinted to get away from him, even more nervous than when I first sat down. I could tell my face was red, because the air felt cool against my skin. I am just hoping he won't try to talk to me. Thankfully, he didn't say anything, though I did feel someone was watching me move around. Due to the fact that I was trying to get away from him though, I made a deadly mistake of going to the front, though our plans were supposed to be as always, with me in the very back. So now I am going to be stuck front rushing the boss, and I won't be able to pull out my bow and healing potions until at least three minutes in the battle, and this is really bad since today no one else who likes to heal players is around, I can tell because no one else has any crystals on them to help, sometimes I wish that I knew for sure how to tell though.

I felt a strange probing of someone's eyes, though I wasn't really sure who it was, I could tell it was someone by me. When I looked someone seemed to stick out the most among them, and it was because of their presence just being there. They cloaked themselves in a midnight black cloak, though it was black it glimmered in the dim light. For some reason something about their frame seemed familiar to me, but I could not figure it out. Their gender wasn't distinguishable in in the mythical cloak, and their face along with any hair that they may have was shielded in a black mask that had two bright streaks of gold falling down from it. I noticed that it was that person who was staring at me, because their entire composition was directed at me in a way that I couldn't really explain myself. Before I could go and ask them what they were doing the gates started to open, and thus the boss was revealed upon us.

The boss room itself was actually pretty surprising, it started out as a dark cavern, but when the doors started to move open crystals started to glow a dim blue all across the room. The blue reminded me mostly of a deep sea, because though it was a dim blue, it was also lightly colored and the difference between that blue and the walls of the boss room reminded me of the contrast in a strange art museum I had once went to that only accepted abstract art. The walls reflected the light of the crystals, and the walls them self were surprisingly a burgundy red, and had strange tassels all along the walls of which looked extremely out of place, especially since they were snow white.

Wanting to fully scope it so that I would be able to compare it's stats to the report that was given to us in order to check the viability of the guild that's leader had sent a death threat towards me. Noting that it was surprisingly very close, I also found that they forgot to describe the wings in detail, so when I looked at them I was shocked. Despite his ugly appearance, the wings beamed nobility and honor, glistening against the bright blue glowing stalagmites and stalactites that were all around the boss room, this was also not mentioned in the report. Even though everyone else was just charging onto battle ignoring them, I was surprised enough by them to almost have been left behind by the door.

_So the fight begins_, this thought rung in my head for a moment, and thus I joined the fighting. Though actually I didn't join, because my position was to be in the back, far away from the boss as possible, so that I could shot him with my bow. As Daten-shi drew his blade, I noticed that unlike his wings, of which are flapping as I say this, shows absolutely no sign of shimmering under the glowing blue. Seconds after that thought, I cleared my head, needing only one thought in my mind to succeed, _hit the target. _I took a deep breath and slowly drew the bow, those same three words echoing in my mind, I noticed that the number of people who needed a tending to was still low, then took my shot, feeling a hint of anticipation to see where the arrow will fly.

The shot would have hit the boss... if someone hadn't **gotten in the way**... I quickly dropped the bow, forgetting completely ignoring any of it's potential value and withdrew one of my healing crystals from my pouch, running over to the person. Even though usually I can keep my composure in these kinds of situations, this time it was my fault, worsening my own guilt. When I finally got close enough to heal them, I noticed two things, one was that it seems as though they didn't obtain to much damage, however for some reason they passed out, and two was that... they were wielding two blades... Normally that wouldn't be odd, if it wasn't for the common knowledge that in this game the ability to hold two blades is only among the highest levels, and even among us those kind of weilders don't show up often. I quickly grabbed them, knowing that the boss would probably be after me know since I have ran up so close to it.

Surprisingly, before I could react though the one who was shot, who was know in my arms, jumped up and ran after the boss. _Idiot,_ the thought came in my head, how could they do that, even if they are not injured badly! I knew this was probably my only opportunity to return to my position. Getting up quickly, I sprinted to get back to my spot, but before I could I was suddenly wrapped around by somebody, the sudden touch sent chills down my body, and I looked up to see black mask... "Would you please tell me who the hell you are?" I said, trying to sound calm despite the frantic situation I was now in. If there was two things that I hate in this world more than the embarrassment that was my childhood, it is people who hid their identity and being touched by strangers... and this guy is **_both _**_of them_.

It wasn't just that their arms were around me, it as also because I could see that the boss was coming at us, and that they were just running away... A thought, about something along the lines of _Why did you save me__? _Struck me for a moment, but I knew that I would have to put the thought behind me so that I could continue with the task at hand. Because unlike the person that is now carrying me, I can see the boss and could tell everything that was going on, for the most part... "Hey, don't you see what is going on behind us?! We can't just leave all those people out on their own! I need to help them! Plus, look behind you!" I said practically shouting, just how thick is this guy? Getting agitated with being ignored, I practically grabbed their head and moved it back so that they could see that the boss was coming, and they acted as though they never heard a word that I yelled over to them! My thoughts were suddenly interrupted though when the boss suddenly jumped at us and my vision went black.

_I'm in a bright green forest, when I try to look at my feet though, all I can see is bright white. Noticing a teenage girl, with long glistening blonde hair, since she had her back turned towards me though, I couldn't see her looked at me for a moment, giggled, turned around, and left, for some reason I still couldn't distinguish her face despite being shown it, the thought was frustrating for a moment, so I decided to follow her. Every few seconds she would turn around, teasing me by saying things like, "Catch me, Catch me" **(Tbh, for me this would be a nightmare) ** she seemed to have a calm atmosphere around here, and something about her made me want to catch her, and it wasn't her teasing words. I started striving closer, for a second I felt as though it was Asuna, but pushed the thought out of my head, and when it seemed like I would almost catch up, my vision of this world faded, and I was brought back to my current real world, SAO._

After lethargically blinking a few times, I looked up to see that the person with the black mask had been looking at me... I wanted to rip of their mask to find out who they were, but I was way to sleepy to even try. "Would you please explain to me what happened? Why you didn't return me to my friends? Who are you? Why did you save me?!" I felt a strange urgency in my own voice and it caught me off guard, usually I don't like asking many questions, because I feel as though it is like being a pest to others, even though now I can talk to people as though I was never deaf. After a few questions, I realized that he still wasn't responding, and soon after I started talking he sent me a message _"Hello... remember me?" _'could it possibly be?'

**_Author's Note: Hey guys, strange chapter (Angel: Says the person who is writing it, just how stupid are you!?) Anyways... Please, if you enjoyed to as you please and please support this fanfiction! :D Plz? No? Alright... ;-;...So, Who is the strange mysterious cadaver who saved Angel? They are surely part of her past... but... aww whatever, I will leave this for you guys to wonder :D Till next chapter, bai._**

**__**PS: PLEASE TELL ME OF ANY GRAMMER OR SPELLING ERRORS THAT YOU SEE IN THIS AND ANYTHING THAT SEEMS OUT OF PLACE, I WILL TRY TO FIX IT IMMEDIATELY BECAUSE I AM WELL AWARE THAT I AM NOT PERFECT, SO I WILL NEED YOUR HELP! "\0.0/" pls? No? Comman?**__**


	19. Mystery Revealed!

_**Author's Note: So... What is going on with this mysterious masked foe that knows Angel? What are they hiding? Did they save Angel in order to just kill her? Just what secrets are they hiding? Find out (Some) this and more in this chapter of Sword Art Online through Angel!**_

_**_-=Chapter 18: Midnight's Secrets(Angel's point of view)=-_**_

They looked at me for a few minutes, and then sighed for a moment as though they were very disappointed in me for not noticing who they were, they must know who I am if they _expect _me to _remember _them. I tried again to look for some sort of distinguishing feature. Even I found none though, I still decided that I needed to find out who they were. Before I could think of anything that I could say to this stranger who masqueraded themselves, they suddenly said "Well, have you figured out who I am yet? It shouldn't be that hard to figure out." they said cheerfully. "Of course I haven't figured it out yet, your hiding your entire body structure, the only thing that I really have to go in is your voice, of which I can't even interpret the gender through that mask of yours!" I felt myself getting irritated because of what was going on but really, who wouldn't be angry in this situation? (_**Brah, you got nothing on me :P (I would just take of their**_** mask))**

I quickly decided though that it was best not to get upset in this situation, since I guaranteed that it would have the same outcome of what just happened. In other words, since most likely they would just find joy in my confusion. The worst part about this situation is that not only can I figure out who they are, but I _feel _like I know them from somewhere. "Could I ask if your going to let me out of here?" I said quietly, then said "and Thank you... for saving me..." though to be honest I did not expect the reaction that I got from them "Chh" that was all I heard come from them... Giving up and knowing most likely that they wouldn't kill me in my sleep, because they didn't seem to enjoy that kind of one-sided fight anyways, I rolled over and went to shut my eyes to think things over, but before I knew it I was asleep.

_I was in my old home, from my early childhood. Looking around, I figured out that it was my room that I was in, because it had a picture of 'Blue Boy' and a small dresser full children's books. As I went to step outside of the room, I suddenly heard giggling from behind me, and turned around quickly, to see someone from my past... who died when I was seven, and was my only friend from that time in my life. They just looked at me, their bright blonde hair glimmering from the sunlight that was poring in the room, I happily ran over to them, and we started to play together. I knew that something was off though because something just wasn't feeling right about my friend, then I noticed that their face was undistinguishable... I could not see their face. I suddenly felt myself ripped from my dream as I felt myself being gently shaked._

My vision was deciding to take it's time coming back to me, because of this though it prevented me from doing what I really wanted to do, which was question the masked person write away. When vision finally came back to my eyes for good, I blinked a few times in order to try and get rid of that feeling of grogginess that you usually get right after sleep. To be honest even though that dream that I had scared me a little bit, it also was very interesting and it reminded me of the masked man who had saved me. I looked at him for a few minutes and was a bit glad that they seemed nice, since even though they had irritated me by hiding in a mask and refusing to reveal their identity without me guessing, they still had saved me from certain death.. even though they almost killed themselves in the process.

I looked at the person, of whom I was almost certain of who they are now. Quietly, I said the name "Marcel?" kind of curiously, wondering if it really could be him, though this wonderment was very small. "Hmmmmm?" they responded, "Couldn't catch that." I repeated the name, this time much louder, "Marcel, is it you?" Quickly, he almost giggled for a moment, and then took of his mask to reveal grey hair and bright hazel eyes, I looked for a moment, but before I could say anything to him he said, speaking to me for the first time, "Hello, it's me, Johnna , remember? We first met back when SAO was just being released, you really have changed since we have last met, I have to say that when I suddenly gained the ability to talk I was quite shocked. However, I was even more shocked to see that you are okay." he said shyly, his face a bright pink.

I looked at them in complete shock, then I suddenly recognized him, I thought about how rare it would be to find someone that I had only seen once in the real world. _Seriously, its him! I would have never though that this guy was the one I met back at the shop, it seems as though he also got the ability to speak, I wonder if he has changed for the better or for the worse... "_Is the reason that you messaged me instead of actually talking to me the moment I woke up because you wanted me to remember who you were on my own?" I suddenly felt him hug me, and I blushed in embarrassment, "W-what are you?!" I said a bit upset... "I am so glad your alright, what's with you? Usually you play it safe but you almost died two days ago!" I suddenly realized how long it has been... "Two days?!"

__-=Back at the base=-__

"Without Angel around, things are way to quiet!" said Hajime, it was quite random, because they were in the middle of a discussion about what exactly to do about Angel's disappearance. "To be honest, I really think that it would be best to end the search for Angel if there is no proof that she is still alive, but, my feelings keep pointing away from that option, so I think it would be best for you two to decide what to do together, and I will follow your decision." Said Yuichi before leaving the room and walking to his room, because unlike everyone else, he constantly has work to do outside of boss fights. Leaving Kirito and Hajime to figure out what to do about the situation, the room ended up going dead silent, except for a few comments Hajime said to try and lighten the seriousness of the situation.

Kirito was just looking out a window, most likely thinking about everything that was going on, and what would be best to do, knowing how valuable a player Angel is, and probably realizing that he cares more for her than he originally thought. When Hajime finally went and poked Kirito, to try and zap him back to reality, he sighed and regained his previous stature that he usually holds when thinking, but this time had one hand over his face. "Considering what I saw at the boss fight... I would say Angel is definitely still alive." He started to try structuring what could have happened to Angel and what he had seen. "It seems like... Angel has probably been taken from us. By who, that is where our information runs dry. I saw her being carried away from the boss by the same person who killed it." Hajime responded by saying "Are you talking about that guy who shot around that boss using two blades? That was terrifying!" he said, half in awe, half in fear.

Kirito this time, just responded with a quiet yes than stood up, "Well, we probably are not going to find her here, so it would be best to go and try looking for her. If she is dead..." a tear suddenly rolled down his cheek, and caught even him off guard. "What are you talking about Kirito? Don't be silly, we both know Angel, and she isn't one to go down easily, for the most part anyways..." Hajime said whole heartedly, though it probably didn't help the situation. Both of them quickly ran down the hall to go talk to Yuichi. "Yuichi, would you give us our blades back? I mean, I understand your trying out modifying swords to add skills to them, but if you mess up you could make our swords useless, and we have decided to look for Angel." Yuichi looked up, and quietly muttered "You guys sure figure things out quite quickly, huh?"

Hajime then said cheerfully "You bet, nothing like a quiet guy and a loud guy talking things through. I swear, for a while I thought we would go days without getting nothing more than a few words out. So I was glad when he took the lead of the conversation after I brought him back from is total think mode. It's been a while since I have seen Kirito completely immersed in thought." Yuichi didn't respond, but instead pulled out his own blade and continued tinkering with it. Thankfully though he wasn't messing with his usual blade, just one that was close in attributes, Kirito then said "I think that it would be best to do something like this if you are trying to get some sort of skill on the blade" then he went and did a few things to and then it lit on fire! Yuichi responded by saying something along the lines of "How did you figure that out so quickly?!" before he stopped talking and calmed down about it, though he did ask Kirito a few more questions about what he did.

After they were done with there now lengthy conversation about coding in things into the swords and things of that nature, they all equipped there blades and got ready to leave. However, before leaving, Hajime decided to be a dud and trip over the new modified blade of Yuichi's that he left on the ground in his room, and broke the blade in half. "Hajime..." Yuichi said, now he was obviously aggravated. Kirito placed a hand on his shoulder though, indication that it would not be worth his time anyways, and then they all left. Though Kirito probably wasn't emotionally prepared to face the fact that Angel could possibly be dead, he knew that he would have to get over it to confirm that she wasn't, at least that was what he believed.

__-=To Angel!=-__

After realizing how long I had been gone from all of the others, I broke away from the hug and realized what must be done. "Johnna, what is your username?" I asked curiously. He looked at me for a moment, and responded with "Midnight". Hesitating for a moment, I got up, and got ready to speak, "Johnna, I am part of a close guild where all of my friends, excluding you, are participating in. If possible, I would like you to come with me in order to join _The Swordsmen_. I am sorry though since I know that this was really sudden, but we need to hurry because Kirito and the others might be looking for me. If they are, they would suspect you to be someone that is against us since you had taken me in like this." After he waited for a few seconds, waiting to respond, he eventually murmured, "Yes" and I quickly grabbed his hand to rush back home.

I looked at my map hesitantly and saw that we were currently on floor 26, near the edge of a large forest, where we were sunlight seemed to peek through at very few places where tree branches didn't shelter the ground. I looked through the forest in awe for a moment, then started took out two warp crystals I had, both of them were special crystals that could have their destination set to any point as long as the point was either land owned by the person who set it or it was part of the public domain, such as shops and parks. I handed one to Johnna, who took it happily, and then we both broke them. Just as the manual said it would, for a moment the crystals just sat their stagnant, in thousands of pieces, but soon after they disintegrated and we started to glow for a few seconds then were teleported.

__-=FlashForward: Three hours=Yuichi's Point of View=-__

After three hours of searching for our missing friend and having every possible scenario in mind... but still having no luck finding, we all were exhausted and looking forward to going home. However our failure at finding our comrade left us with our heads held low and our hearts sunken. As we stepped through the last tree on the way to our home, we all looked to see our house as it always was when we left it, except this time there was something different about it... There was a light **on**... At first I just pawned it off as my imagination but as we drew closer the light didn't turn off or fade out. I could tell that everyone else was also seeing it by the sudden increase in their walking pace and the looks on their faces of which used to be frowning held a small amount of joy.

I was the first to start running towards the house, Kirito and Hajime soon followed and when we all reached it we slammed open the door only to have our faces drop in shock, Hajime and Kirito instantly going for their blades. A teenager, much like us, with grey hair and hazel eyes was in our house! At first I was to surprised to react, then I to grabbed for my currently sheathed sword. However, when I heard a sweet voice that I recognized instantly flow through the air, I almost instantly let go of the handle. "Don't hurt him!" Everyone turned around in surprise to see that Angel was behind all of us, with a bundle of wood in her hands. She dropped them at the sight of us noticing her and ran over to us. She almost seemed shocked to see that we were back so soon.

We watched her run up to us, Kirito looked pissed for some odd reason, probably because he was at the impression that Angel did not invite this boy for idle chit-chat, or that he did something bad to her. When she finally reached us she was kneeled over panting, however she still held the ability to speak. "He... is not what you guys think he is, he isn't an intruder or anything!" Angel said, to be honest Angel's current poor athletic condition surprised me because usually she could have sprinted that and not even have sweat a drop. As she continued though, I felt as though she was only pouring salt in Kirito's already gapping wound, "I brought him over here because he was not only the one who saved me from certain death, but also someone that I know from the real world. He is a friend of mind and I brought him over here with one question in mind..." She stopped as if waiting for the boy to say something, in which case he did.

"Hello everyone. My username is Midnight, however my real name is Johnna. It is an honor to meet you all and I must ask an important question..." He than bowed to us and asked a question that shocked everyone... "May I please join The Swordsmen?"

_**Author's Note: Hello all of my amazing readers, I really appreciate you guys and I just thought it was about time I reiterate that for you. Thank you all for helping encourage me to do my best for these fanfictions, and a special thanks goes out to ChristmasForJuan, he is a friend of mine and an amazing writer, so please check him out. Also thanks should go out to Antex for his amazing support and also out to all of you, fellow readers, your support always matters! Anyways, How will everyone react to the sudden introduction to Johnna? Will they accept him? Decline his offer? OR will this fanfiction take a darker turn?! Find out next chapter! :D**_

_**Ps: If you enjoyed what you saw here today please follow, favorite, and review because I will do my best to keep this Fanfiction interesting as we go down every turn! :D Thank you all for reading... See yall... next chapter! :D Baii**_


	20. Kirito's Rejection

_Author's** Note: Hello all my fantastic readers :). Today I bring chu ANADA CHAPTA... anyways, so guys I have recently started a new fanfiction about Code Geass called "The King and The Angel" and I would really appreciate it if you guys could check it out! :D Anyways, That was the reason I haven't uploaded a new chapter here recently... This chapter... will bring a new side of Kirito... NEVER shown in the anime or manga hehehe..his... _ side... what it won't let me post it? Well I guess you will have to read this chapter to find out! :D**_

_**Chapter 20: Kirito's Rejection**_

We all looked at the boy in shock... excluding Angel and Yuichi, Angel looking guilty and a bit hopeful and Yuichi was most likely sizing up the new kid by staring at him for a few minutes. Yuichi... who for some reason now had glasses on, pushed the glasses up close to his eyes, and said matter-of-factly, "I say that this kid... Midnight would make a good member of our team from what I can tell. I all ready thought that we would need to find one more member of our team, and here is one that looks strong enough to fit in without feeling out of place. So, I vote to let him join". Soon after, Hajime ran up to the kid, and said "Hello! I am Hajime, my name is my username, and I think it's amazing to meet someone that Angel knows in real life!" his words rung of as cheery and surprisingly a bit British.

After a few seconds of cluching onto the new comers hand, he let go and pretty much yelled "I say let him join!" and despite his loud demeanor, he actually sounded as though he was really happy. This was to the point where you could almost feel as though if you were not as happy as him, or if you refused to accept his opinion as his own and something that was important, then he would tickle you half to death until you were not only agreeing with him but pretty happy yourself to, however this feeling seemed to be completely ignored by a certain black haired talented swordsmen we all know...

Kirito... doesn't seem very happy with the situation at all, and did a very poor job at hiding it too. After a few seconds of just standing there, with a cross expression on his face, Hajime ran over to him and put him in a headlock, shaking him around to try and loosen him up, after a few seconds he let him go. Hoping that the good thrashing could make him smile, this feeling was returned with a scowl greeting him coldly as he let go and looked at Kirito's face again. Kirito seemed to also be sizing up the boy however he was doing it in a different way, by staring into the kid with a cold, and lifeless gaze. After a few minutes of doing so the ironically shy Midnight (Ironic btw guys because Midnight put on quite the show in the boss room, so you would assume he would be someone who was a bit more aware of his strong capabilities), calmly said "Would you please not look at me like that?" as he looked at Kirito, giving him a worried and warm smile.

Kirito was caught a bit off guard, but after that he quickly responded stating, "I have to ask, how exactly did you beat that boss in one string of attacks, and do it virtually on your own?" Angel was obviously confused because she passed out midway through the boss battle and thus didn't know how the boss was beaten, though she was a bit curious how she had gotten out of their alive. Midnight looked as though the question was actually a sledgehammer in disguise that had hit him harder than any other force could have... and stood there for a moment in complete shock at the strange question, but then eventually caved in at the pressure that was coming across everyone else and started talking.

"Well you see... Upon entering this world I had only two goals. To destroy anything that got in my way to survive and to eventually meet up again with the girl that I had met in the real world. So ever since entering I have constantly been working my hardest to become the strongest that I possibly can and eventually along the way, I noticed that I had a new skill in my screen... The skills name is _**D****_uel _Blades...** _Originally I had been trying to keep the new ability under wraps inorder to avoid any negative attention. However, when I saw what was going to Angel if I didn't intervene I guess you could say that I went a little cross and couldn't keep myself from helping. I have to say that she is definitely one of the most interesting people I have met, along side all of you guys."

Everyone looked at each other with what seemed to be a mental bid of war as everyone glared at Kirito to accept the possible member, excluding Angel and Midnight of course who just stood there smiling up at him waiting for his answer. After a few minutes, he finally caved in and said "If everyone else agrees to it then I will too. Welcome to our guild, Johnna, or do you prefer being called Midnight?" He as cautiously. Though Angel was giving a concerned glance at Kirito's sudden changed behavior, the rest of them already caught on to why he was upset and was grinning slightly, the grins were easy to conceal from Kirito and Angel as they just acted as though they were smiling from the succession at Kirito accepting the new possible member.

Hajime went and grabbed Kirito's shoulder "Kirito, lighten up a bit jeez! Why don't we all go on a trip to the old pond together to help welcome our new member, eh?" he said happily, however it felt as though his words had some kind of secret feeling to Angel. With these words it is suddenly agreed that Midnight shall join The Swordsmen on their journey to beat the death game. Suddenly Hajime jumped from Kirito's shoulder and within five minutes came back and had only a pair of swimming trunks on, Angel sighed and tapped his head, "Bacca, we aren't at a pool or pond yet!" she said with a small amount of agitation, "Hajime, could you stop being an airhead to at least realize that much," Yuichi said sarcastically then let out a brief laugh.

Everyone else left the house, both Angel, and Kirito feeling as though they had lived their entire lives inside of this game, an emotion that for a moment didn't seem peculiar to ether of them.

__-=Around one hour later=-__

With everyone at the old pool _(From like chapter 5?) _everyone there took a moment of nostalgia, except Johnna who just stood there waiting for everyone else to make some move towards the water. This time when they came though they all noticed that cherry blossoms were falling everywhere, making it obvious of the seasons that have occurred between passing through, though they all know that regardless the month in this world it will still be warm enough water. So, happily Hajime jumped into the water anxiously soon followed by Angel, and then slowly after by Kirito. Yuichi and Johnna stayed looking at the aqua for a few moments, Johnna because he suddenly felt as though he should wait for everyone to go before him and Yuichi because he was still stuck in his thoughts of the past.

After a few more minutes Hajime jumped out of the water and grabbed both of them, practically launching them into the water, and then laughing about them getting soaked while still having those deep thought expressions on their faces. "We are here to swim guys, not to stare at the stuff we are going to swim!" he said then sighed and jumped in after them. However, even Hajime just remembered something that they had all forgotten in the passing of the time since they were last here. '_What exactly happened to that Bow of Angel's that she cared so deeply for when we first came here? It's gone, not only that, but she hasn't even gotten a new one since the last one went missing. What was so special about it anyways?_' these thoughts filled the minds of Kirito, Yuichi and Hajime as they all suddenly stared at Angel, who just returned the rude glances with a smile before splashing Kirito in the face and saying "Wake up!" with a calm voice.

Hajime and Yuichi quickly sought shelter from all of the splashing by going under water and swimming to the center of the small pond where Johnna was sitting around relaxed, and both Hajime and Yuichi asked a question, Hajime around one word behind which made it almost sound like a choir with one person singing a beat behind everyone else, "How-ow did-id you-ou get-et here-re so-o quickly-ckly?" they said before looking at each other before looking back at Johnna, who responded rather frantically. "Well... I was in a national recognized swimming school so I sort of picked up swimming there... the name was Iruka High school? It was a rather strange school but definitely one of the most interesting schools you could have participated in..."

Yuichi and Hajime both looked at him with admiration for a few moments, before Yuichi could regain his composure Hajime suddenly jumped on him and said jokingly "Looks like our new member is a national swimmer!" with an excited look towards Midnight. "Ah, I didn't say I was really amazing at swimming or anything, just that I went to a good school, truly you shouldn't do all of that for me!" he said surprised by the sudden glee that Hajime had upon learning the new tidbit of information on the new member. "No, just getting into a national school is surely worth the praise my friend." Hajime said, before lurching at the poor Johnna helplessly trying to fend off all of the compliments with little to no success what so ever.

These three having a bond fest left Kirito and Angel at quite a loss as they just watching the three others pretty much jumping over each other. "It's like their playing leap frog... in the water..." Angel said curiously trying to put her thoughts into words as to what exactly they were doing. Kirito then whispered 'yes' in agreement then suddenly splashed water in Angel's face, "Pay back." Kirito said with a bit of mischief in his tone, leaving Angel at a lost for words. Yet before she could call upon the forces of the water, they both noticed that the three who were formally in the deepest area of the swimming pond were now right in front of them, surrounding them in all directions. "Well, it looks like we have been cornered Kirito." She said with a sigh, Kirito didn't respond this time because he was to busy being splashed by Hajime.

Angel was being splashed by Johnna and Yuichi mercilessly for around three minutes before the oncoming water finally ceased and the two were left in defeat as the others washed off. "Kirito we better go because if we don't they will leave us behind!" she said impatiently, grabbing his hand and running towards the others while doing so. Angel suddenly felt herself blush though and pretty much took out the embarrassment on the water ahead of her, as she moved around 30% faster according to Yuichi's calculations. Soon they joined the others, and got dry in around five minutes and the four, no five of them headed home together for the first time. "WAIT, WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT GETTING MIDNIGHT A ROOM!" yelled out Hajime, "You just had to ruin the moment didn't you Hajime? If it is okay with you guys I will share a room with Midnight" Yuichi said to Hajime so he would calm down.


	21. Resonating Light

_**Sorry Guys, my computer broke, got it fixed, and now I am back and ready for action. Okay guys, so I know you probably are fed up with the very wavy intervals at which I upload content and I am sorry, I just can't control whether or not I will have luck on my side in life, so please forgive me. Also, if you think that there is anything that I could improve on, don't hesitate to give a review because it is appreciated ^.^ Oh and please if you enjoyed follow and favorite! It is appreciated!**_

_**Chapter 21: Resonating Light**_

Everyone was patiently waiting for the new recruit of the guild to get ready. You could hear Hajime sigh impatiently and Yuichi tapping his foot in a bit of a frenzy. After a few more moments of waiting Midnight finally entered the room and he was now wearing a grey outfit that held tight to the skin, with a black insignia on it that supposedly represented the Swordsmen. It had a small gold chain that looped from the front of his thigh to the back. His shirt contained a few sewing errors however it's also had a strong hold, or at least angel hoped hoped Angel. Over the shirt went a small cape that completely covered half of the shirt and was a flashy glimmering gold that had a hood on the back and a small white button that went on the far right side of it, with the insignia having a sharp contrast due to it's black color. His pants were made of the same flashy golden fabric however both sides of the legs had two strips of white on them. Lastly, Midnight had two long katanas attached to the same side of his waist, the sheaths they were in where a dull grey with a vine-like pattern going across it ,in a lighter grey tone, that made it appealing to look at. With the hilt strangely having a dark pitch black color, it stood out mostly because most hilts would be a bright gold or silver, but his was had a bit of contrast to them.

Angel looked around him a bit hastily, moving around and telling him to lift certain limbs as she adjusted it until she was happy with what was now supposedly his team outfit. Hajime, Yuichi and Kirito exchanged strange glances showing that they all felt as though she was acting out character. Then after taking one more look at it and sighing in relief now that the project was over for her, she gave off a glimmering smile. She had started designing it when he was accepted as a teammate and had been working tirelessly on the outfit for three days. Although people who had devoted their entire game lives on tailoring would call it an amateur outfit she was very proud of it. She also suddenly felt a huge wave of exhaustion come over her, probably due to her lack of sleep. Thoughts wavered around the room as to whether or not today was a good day to test Midnight.

Although everyone was obviously worried about the overwork symptoms that Angel had been going through, today was an important for the day for the entire team. Today was the day that Midnight would get tested to see what he was capable because everyone was eager to see just how powerful he would be, it was decided that Midnight would go against Kirito, who was currently five levels stronger than anyone else on the team despite everyone desperately trying to keep up. Kirito and everyone else started to head out, everyone excluding Kirito, who looked worried, showed small signs of excitement now that they were closer to seeing what exactly he could do, though they doubted that even Midnight could defeat their Kirito.

Midnight and Kirito were forcing the others to keep a quick pace, the trees almost seemed to blur together at the speed they were trying to go at. However, only Angel could keep up with the pace that the two were putting out, and the distance between them and everyone else slowly seemed to grow and grow. Eventually the three did slow down though so the others could catch up and because they both showed signs of being out of breath from practically trying to race each other. As everyone walked at a now dignifying slow pace, some admired the scenery, mainly Yuichi and Angel, however everyone did glance at the backdrop like beauty of the forest. After a while, the ground they were walking on slowly turned from a soft grass-like texture to a distinct gravel like feeling under their feet. Then they started to feel the temperature start to slowly drop so they stopped, and after a short deliberation decided to test him where they stand.

After taking a brief moment to look around at their surroundings, both Kirito and Midnight look at each other, than stand back to back against one another. They then each count ten steps from where they previously stood, with Midnight's steps being slightly larger. After which Kirito sent the request to Midnight, of whom accepted within a moments notice. Then the timer started to count down and both of them started to prepare, at least mentally that is, for the fight about to ensue. Kirito just stood straight, waiting for the clock to go off. On the other hand, Midnight seemed more nervous, both of his hands on his blades strapped to his left waist. However, under this nervousness he felt himself being excited about the battle about to happen.

The timer counts down the last few seconds... 10... 9... 8... 7... Kirito gets in a stance ready for the duel... 6... 5.. 4... Midnight puts a tight grip on his blades... 3... 2... 1... 0. For a few seconds the air seemed to have gone frigid, with tension wavering in the air. However, it quickly changed from tension to a light atmosphere because Hajime tried to give a joke at one of the worst times possible, talking about how the they chose the perfect spot for a battle, because the cold weather can cool the heated fighting. Everyone laughed for a moment, with Midnight laughing into his sleeve for a few seconds, then everyone regained composure and the tension slowly started to return as the battle ensued.

Both combatants launched themselves to one another in one leap, and they also had managed to unsheathe a sword within that small time. For a few moments Midnight had dropped his gaze from Kirito to the feet they were on, then looked back at Kirito, for a few moments Kirito seemed to be winning the stalemate, however was quickly shut down as Midnight over powered him. Then Midnight took two leaps back in an effort to gain some distance for a few moments for what ever reason, although it seemed as though he was trying to decide something. He shook his head a few times while pondering, then ultimately ended up slowly, hesitantly, unsheathing his second sword.

_**Author's note: Well guys, I know this was a short chapter but the next chapter is going to be about the rest of the battle, and there is going to be something rather interesting revealed. :D**_

_**PREVIEW OF THE NEXT CHAPTER:**_

_**Chapter 22: Impossible changes**_

_**Everyone looks at the ground in disbelief, and Midnight sheaths his blades quickly, as though to try and hide what he had just done... Everyone exchanges hesitant and worried glances to one another, with enough tension in the air to cut with a blade... Midnight looks back at everyone with a regretful glance as he...**_

_*******I hope that I didn't give too much away my beautiful followers XD I know that you guys are either gonna love, or hate me for my idea of next chapter :D******_


	22. New Dual Swordsman?

With hesitation wrought all over his face, Midnight slowly unsheathed a second sword that he had. Previous to this moment, I had believed that he had it incase the sword which he typically used was knocked out of his hand and away from him. However, instead of putting away his other sword, or any other seemingly reasonable action, he withdrew both of his swords. For a moment, everything had seemed to freeze, even Yuichi seemed to have confusion spread on his face. The main reason for such confusion is because of the common knowledge that duel wielding and normal swordsplay are two completely different ball games.

However, we didn't get to think about it for too long, because seemingly the very instant that he had unsheathed the second blade, our questions were put to rest when both of his swords were engulfed and seemingly instantly, Kirito was knocked to the ground, and his health was seemingly askew, as it had only a sliver remaining. The duel was then ended, with Midnight decidedly the victor. Even though I originally believed that watching Midnight duel after the second sword was drawn would help answer the many questions that had been raised, but this just raises more questions than it solves... The first to talk is Hajime, whom says "Well! That was something... and about that..." When I look over to Midnight, it seems as though he is almost regretting his actions.

"I didn't want to keep you guys in the dark about it, which is why I decided to use this opportunity to tell you all of this strange new ability I developed," He said, pausing several times while talking, as if in deep thought about what he was saying. Carefully dancing around words that would come off incorrectly, if I had to guess... "The, ability, that I received, goes by the name 'Duel Blades.' I don't remember doing anything in particular to earn it though, I am more confused than anything. I have tried it out in secluded areas where there wouldn't be a risk of people seeing it so I could learn more about it. In order for me to figure out what it did, at first it would seem obvious, just holding two blades... right?" Of all of us, I have to admit, that Yuichi seemed by far more intrigued, he seemed to be leaning toward Midnight, probably subconsciously, and was looking at Midnight with mixed emotion, and in deep thought.

"So, I had another blade crafted that was just like my original, however, when I tried it, it's as if I was overwhelmed by the power that was presented by the blades together," Again, with a rather long pause, "So, I had spent most of my days since developing it, a few months ago, trying to adjust to the skill. I think that I have gained quite a bit of control, but I still have a long way to go." He looks over to me, then Yuichi and Hajime, whom are close to one another, like always, and then to Kirito, "I know that it is seemingly offlandish and hard to believe, but I know just about as much as you guys other than this." I hadn't noticed earlier, but the forest trees that were right beside Kirito when he was fighting, had gashes that were immense, and they were leaking sap. As if a reflex, I walked over to them and started to mend them with a healing potion, or at least, tried to.

Yuichi finally seemed to be dragged out of the daze he was in and looked over to me, fairly confused. "What are you doing?" He asked, and I responded saying, "I just felt sympathy for the poor tree, so I was attempting to mend it... I don't think it's doing too much though..." When I looked back over to it though, it was glowing, and seemed to quickly be mending itself. I am not entirely sure if it was because of me, or if it was the system that was taking care of it. I don't think I read anything about the system having an auto-maintainable environment. I turned over to the guys, and then said, "Well, although I know we all have our questions, I feel that the only way for us to answer them, would be to patently wait for Midnight to figure it out since he himself knows little about this ability." Kirito and Yuichi nod, but Hajime responds saying, "Awww... But I reallllly want to know!"

I start moving, and everyone else starts following along on the trail back to the path. Hajime stood planted where he was for a good 30 seconds, before reluctantly starting to jog to catch up to us. He really can be strange. I start looking up to the canopy, and noticed that it was even harder to see than I remembered it, and then to the ground, it was a sandy path driven in by our constant wandering about the forest. After a while it starts feeling rather repetitive, so I start looking toward the trees to try and identify the kinds that are within the forest. However, I quickly realized that this was a fantasy setting, and that nearly all of the trees here resembled pines, and that there was relatively none which had a different appearance. When I looked to the rest of the team, Yuichi was in thought, Hajime was nagging to Midnight about his unique ability, and when I looked over to Kirito, he was looking at me, and when he notices my glance, he looks away.

For whatever reason, probably due to the fact that on the way I was much more excited, or due to the familiarity of the path that we take, I became unbearably bored. So, when the path was finally broken into the familiar opening which resides our home, I breath a sigh of relief. I take off my shoes, a habit that was developed when I was in the real world, and that I haven't shed, even though no one else seems to take the extra measures to prevent getting dirt in our home. I walk down the rather long hallway and then into the living room. I plant myself in the couch that is known to be the most comfortable, and get ready to sort my inventory and look over my messages, to try and keep up on the important happenings. Despite our environment, there is even people whom get by every day on SAO by creating public articles for people such as myself to read. Informing us about the newest news, and giving us an idea of important events that have taken place. After briefly looking over the most recent one, covering a new strange guild that seems to apparently be giving off occult like vibes, I decide to go and look at my messages. When I do, I prioritize them and click the a button labeled 'Important' whenever there is a message I believe I will need to revisit. As I look to the top which tells me about how many new messages I have received, it reads '103 New Messages' and I can feel myself sigh, without thinking.

I look to my side, and find that Kirito is sitting at the chair opposite to me, and seems to be doing what I am, looking over his messages. Over time, due to our high involvement in the future of the game, we have become quite well-known despite our small size. I look back to my screen and start looking over the long list of messages, the first few follow a trend that has recently been going on, which is messages requesting to join us, along with information about their abilities and so on... However, we typically don't look at these, as we don't want to have anyone join when they request it, we want to know someone without them knowing us and then decide. We have had Yuichi and Hajime both go... undercover... to try and discover what people think of us and then ask them various questions, to see if they would be suitable for recruitment. However, we quickly decided this was a bad idea as it turns out that Hajime isn't capable of keeping a secret.

When I look back at Kirito, he's looking at me, as though trying to say something, but lacking the words to say it. "In the excitement of the earlier, we forgot to share our evaluation of Midnight's performance..." I suddenly catch myself laughing at the way he twitches his eyebrow while seemingly begrudgingly getting out those words. "I believe that we all know how he did." Was my response, and Kirito looks, kinda hurt, but I take it as his pride getting a well deserved blow. I put up my message board, as I seem to half heartedly swiped and sent it away. I look and find a rather strange message in my inbox, it was titled, "The Future of SAO" and when I opened it, it seemed to be talking about a ball that was to take place in the Town of Beginnings. I went to the dining room after rather forcefully inviting Kirito to come along, even though he seemed content reading his messages. Yuichi was reading a book in the meeting room, and looked over at us with an acknowledging glance before returning to his book. Sometimes, I catch myself wondering how he even gets these books, and I'm almost sure that he gets these from other SAO players whom happen to be authors or journalists and he just uses one of his abilities to print them and then binds them himself.

After locating Yuichi, I go looking for Hajime, whom I'm sure is with Midnight. I start heading towards Midnight's new room, which was previously a guest room, and then as I listen closely, can start to identify Hajime's voice through the walls as we draw near. He's asking a bunch of questions to Midnight, which didn't seem to be very odd, but then he started asking about how I really knew him, apparently not believing the real story behind our relations. I think that he believes that we fall under the identification of 'couple' but I don't know where he got the misunderstanding. I look to Kirito, whom seems fairly agitated, but also slightly curious as to Midnight's response. He responds to Hajime's bantering in single words, giving seemingly little recognition to the gradual increase of impatience showing through Hajime's voice.

I finally walk in, and pull Hajime away from Midnight, probably because I sympathized with Midnight, as he seems to actually be pretty stressed out by Hajime's curiousity having become almost an interrogation. I hold Hajime's arm and start pulling him out of the room, and I tell Midnight to come along as well. Kirito, seems rather irritated by the contact, but I decide not to pay much mind to it, as he's often like this, but never seems to want to give me the time of day as to why. Finally, everyone is in the meeting room, and Yuichi indecisively puts down his book, occasionally looking over to it eagerly. I start the conversation, because everyone else seems to be wondering what the fuss was about, "I know you all are probably wondering the reason for this meeting, first, I would like to officially welcome Midnight to our guild," and then Kirito slowly claps, Yuichi claps a few seconds later, and Hajime only claps once before putting both his hands under the table.

After it... settles down... I look around the room, and start talking again, "So, I don't know if you all have seen yours yet, but I believe that all of the members of The Swordsmen have been invited formally to a ball that is taking place in the Town of Beginnings." After this, everyone seems to have their interest peaked, "I believe that it is only proper for one or two of us to go representing our guild. This said, I am not entirely sure if you all agree with this idea, if you all want to go, or if you all think that no one should attend, as these kinds of things are typically things we avoid." Usually, I wouldn't have even considered the idea of going to a ball, or forcing one of my companions to go along. However, one of the leaders of a rather influential guild had invited us, so I decided it was best not to leave it alone. Hajime answers almost immediately, thinking that he and Yuichi should scope out everyone. Yuichi adds saying that it would be better not to seclude everyone else, and Hajime accepts it, saying that it was fine if everyone went but that Midnight should stay, since no one knows his face, and it would be useful to not share his face so that we could have him scope recruitments. Everyone was pretty surprised at the fact that this came out of Hajime, but I specifically thought that it would be a splendid idea, and asked whether or not it would be okay with Midnight, and he says that it's fine.

"The ball is scheduled for tomorrow. I had actually gotten the message a few days ago, however, I've been rather busy as of late..." It was a lie, I wasn't busy in particularly, but I was embarrassed to admit that I had completely looked over the message of a top guild leader. Oh, and although I previously didn't reveal this, the reason that these Top Guild Leaders and recruits know to contact me is because of an article that was spread revealing mine and Kirito's names the owner's of the mysterious The Swordsmen, and it gained tons of traction. Hajime and Yuichi's names were also exposed, but they believed that they were merely members since they often don't take the offensive roles. We couldn't refuse it, since we didn't want Yuichi and Hajime to be put into doubt as the real owners. Midnight then dismisses himself and we discuss what we are going to wear, and I become rather glad that I had previously tailored outfits for us all in case of such an occasion.

So, we plan everything out, and the only thing left is to wait for tomorrow. I head back to my room, and feel strangely ecstatic about the ball tomorrow, even though usually I resent events like the.


	23. The Ball

Chapter 23: The Ball

For whatever reason, an air of excitement has been wafting around our home. With the exclusion of Midnight, whom has been staying in his room, everyone has been hastily preparing for the ball we are to attend today. We decided that we would head out around 3 hours before the meeting time that was listed, our reasoning being that it is very possible that there could be delays in our arriving. Although it had previously flew over my mind, the possibility of a mascaraed party just now hit me, and when I look to my inventory I'm reminded of the strange dreams I have been having as of late. What reminded me, was the twenty or so feathers which had appeared scattered on my bed after waking up from a dream of which I couldn't seem to recall the contents. For whatever reason, instances like that one have been occurring more and more often.

However, in this case, the feathers come in handy, and I use them along with some of the wood to carve out and feather some masks for those who are attending, and then place them in my inventory. I didn't really look too much into it, but the amount of crafts to which you can participate in are immense. However, realizing that I could do such a feat has opened my eyes to the possibilities. When I'm finished, I look around me. I'm currently in the meeting room, the golden chandelier is flickering with it's hundreds of candles. Small gems are hanging from each of the stands were the lights are, and when I look below it, a small centerpiece with the three dimensional shape of our insignia is placed. It kind of resembles a paper weight, if I had to give it a purpose, and it's grey, with the swords blades a cold steel color. When I look a few yards away from me, I cringe as I notice that Yuichi has been reading next to me, probably the entire time! I say hello, and notice that he was already dressed for the occasion that will take up our night.

He has a white dress shirt that has a few grey vertical lines that run through it, over it, is a black jacket with a silver outline over it, one with our emblem written on it, his pants were also black, along with his shoes. His hair was groomed, slicked back in order to, most likely, prevent his hair from returning over his face. I've always wondered why he even decided to get that haircut when he doesn't like it when his hair falls over one of his eyes. When I looked at it, it reminded me how our hair hasn't grown since the beginning of this game, and I wonder what situation my hair is in now... I suggested that he switches out of the jacket that has our crest on it, and to wear a normal one instead, as we may be attending a mascaraed party. Now that I think about it, even though our usernames were revealed, only a description of our appearances was posted on that article. That's why we could disguise ourselves, usually by wearing wigs that were crafted using various items that fell from high level defeated monsters, again, it's amazing what one is capable of when you look into the crafts in this hell.

After saying goodbye to Yuichi, whom responded half heartedly, probably too enveloped in his book, but I did see him put down the book and open his inventory as I left. I look down the hallway, and decide to look for Kirito and Hajime. First, I had found Kirito getting ready for the day, but ended up doing it at a rather awkward moment, as he had just gotten out of the shower. I looked over to him, and his face slowly changed from it's usual pale color, to glistening bright layer of red. I feel like I was probably too preoccupied in my thoughts to realize that the situation I was in was extremely embarrassing. I told him that I was sorry for coming at such a bad time, and then left looking for Hajime. Only getting the great mortification of the situation, and feeling myself slightly blush when I remember what he looked like, his wet black hair, and pale, slightly muscular features.

It was while bumbling around upon those now shameful memories, and at this point I found Hajime, in the yard. He also was wearing a suit, which for whatever reason, just doesn't seem to fit him as well as it does Yuichi, even though it's exactly the same outfit. Probably because I know of the personality which falls within the body wearing that suit, and when I think about it, Yuichi seems like the someone who would be a bred and raised business man, someone destined to be successful. Now that I think about it, I don't know much about everyone and their lives in the real world. Hajime smiled when he had noticed that I was there, and asked how he looked, when he got closer, I noticed that he had botched his bowtie, and fix it for him, doing it so naturally, that I had forgotten that I should have asked to fix it first. Hajime had a slight blush on his face when I looked back at him, and I jumped back, "Sorry, it had slipped my mind to just tell you. I had a feeling that you wouldn't succeed if I just told you about it though..." He snaps back, "Hey! I took lessons for this!..." then, in an almost whisper, "Not that they were very successful..."

When me and Hajime started to make our way back inside, we had realized that everyone else had already finished readying. I just now had figured out that I was now the only one that wasn't prim and proper. Kirito had on a white suit, and with a black under suit and a tie. His eyes were glimmering, and he had a smile plastered on his face. The seemingly inverted colors were interesting, to say the least, and I seemed to have forgotten completely the fact that I had made him the outfit, with my at the time poor tailoring skills, and even now I'm constantly fixing it, regardless of how often I attempted to keep it together, it just wouldn't want to hold. The white on his suit, actually had a very slight golden tint to it, and I ended up approaching, and walking past them. I said, rather rushed as I knew we would be late if I had taken any length of time longer than what was minimally required.

I had practically leapt and sprinted into my room, trying to prevent being late, even though this 'late' would be 'less than three hours early,' I just despise being tardy to any event. I took off the outfit I had previously been wearing, and replaced it with a dress. It was long, and mostly white, with grey and golden ruffles that would appear every other layer of it. I also took a jacket out of my inventory, that was furry and resembled closest to a foxes fur, but it was completely white. The dress itself, was rather poufy, and I regretted having given it so many layers, I just wanted to make sure that it resembled something a princess, I guess, would wear to a ball. I let go of that moment of regret, and then head back out, not running this time, to prevent tripping on the ankle length gown. It was because of this length that I was able to keep my comfortable boots on. Everyone seems to be completely taken aback by my appearance, with the adverted glance of Kirito seeming to shine out. He said that I looked great though, with I appreciated, I remembered my hair, it's white, which isn't commonplace at all... I took out a hat that I have only worn on sparse occasions, and tucked all of my hair into it.

With everyone primed for the ball, we all left for the Town of Beginnings, we actually have a barrier placed around our home that prevents the usage of transportation crystals. We started walking on a trail, different from the one we traveled on with Midnight, because upon realizing that we had burned a trail, we decided we didn't want to keep using it, since it would ground it in more. It made me think of the Henry David Thoreau, whom tried to live in the woods as to break away from societal patterns, only to realize that he had been digging in a pathway when going to get his water. Figuring out, that we humans act in routines, we just, fall into them, without even being conscious of it ourselves. Finally, once moving out of the barrier, we used out crystals to be sent to one of the warp centers that reside in the The Town of Beginnings. I looked around, and then looked towards the description of where to go from here, and gave everyone the masks that I had made.

I really became glad that I had made them, as my guess had been correct. The reason that I had previously been drawn to that conclusion is because there is some guilds like us that like to stay out of the limelight, although our reasoning is a bit different. We don't want to be in it since we don't believe that we're right to be there, and that we're just a group of friends that are trying to leave this hellhole as soon as possible... To be fairly honest, it's rather difficult to honestly describe our reasoning, but it's there. Upon us getting to the doors, which were blocked by a few burly, strong looking players, probably just an intimidation attempt, but they ask for us to pull up the invitation, and when I show them, I notice, for just a split second, a flicker of coercion... I take a closer look at him, tall, he has a very voluminous beard, but is completely bald, or at least appears to be, and has a surprisingly clean cut face, a scar that is rather difficult to notice due to it's close shade to his traditional skin color, which is rather tan. Useless, I tell myself, that glimmer on his face is completely gone. Both of the men let us in, opening the doors, with a slight struggle appearing on their faces.

Golden curtains cover the corners of the room, and red ones cover the rest of it, it kind of reminds me of traditional theaters, and there is some stairs, which are wooden, stained to better match the rest of the environment, and a large chandelier with thousands of candles are lit above the ballroom that resides at the bottom of the stairs. The ballroom is hexagonal in shape, and the corner of it are also covered in curtains, to be fairly honest, I think that these curtains are starting to look shabby compared to the beauty of the rest of the décor. With an ice sculpted swan that is in one of the corners, it seems to be a fountain, as it has either a punch or wine streaming out of it's mouth. A single well dressed man is at the top of the stairs, and he asks for our names, I told the others to give false names, it's not that we are hiding, for whatever reason, I've become highly suspicious of this environment. Everything is extravagant, yes, but when I look around, there is no more than thirty people currently in the room, a complete red flag.

They read off the aliases that we had given them, and I reminded Hajime of his just incase he forgot, and he snaps at me asking why he was he only one I reminded. When I look over to Kirito and Yuichi, they both seem to have strained, feigned smirks, they also seem to have a strong grasp of the strange environment this... ball.. has.. When we walk down the entirely too long stairs, we are greeted by a few women and men whom fawn over my dress and the guys suits. When they asked whom had tailored them, I reluctantly come forward, and they insist on giving me their information. So, there are people and guilds that have a feeling of presenting themselves as though they are in the Victorian era, dually noted. After another ten to fifteen minutes of pointless chattering, some music starts playing from the opposite corner of the room. A single man, the one that had introduced us, was playing a slow, somber, violin peace. Doesn't he need to introduce the other guests? I think to myself...

Kirito walks up to me, his face still holding that fake smile, and said, "May I ask the lady, to a dance?" and I agreed. We both glided to the middle of the ballroom, in swift strides. When we started dancing... It was extremely tense, however, eventually we fell into a comfortable step pattern that suited the music that was being played. Eventually, I ended up losing myself to the music and looking up to Kirito, he seemed to be rather happy... Sway... Sway... We kept swaying along with the music, and I started to feel really comfortable... I look at our feet, and register just how fast we were going... About as fast as a turtle race. When the song had stopped playing... I had closed my eyes, I am not entirely sure what had come over me... but within a few seconds, I could feel someone's breath hovering over my lips, and something soft, had briefly made contact with them. When I open my eyes, mostly in shock, I notice Kirito's large, almost black, eyes only a few inches away from mine, but before he can fully pull away from me, the curtains that had been all over the room had fallen, revealing over a hundred fully geared men stepped out from behind them.

Immediately, open my inventory, and pull out my precious sword, that I had half-mindedly put in just incase we ran into a PKer while we were making our way out of the woods. The people whom had previously been conversing with us shed their gowns and were wearing armor under it! A banner was suddenly fluttered down, Laughing Coffin? Suddenly, a potion is sent in our direction, and my vision goes blurry... I.. can't stay... awake...


End file.
